several objects or a quantity of material gathered or bound together: a bundle of hay.
an item, group, or quantity wrapped for carrying; package.
a number of things considered together: a bundle of ideas.
Slang. a great deal of money: He made a bundle in the market.
Botany. an aggregation of strands of specialized conductive and mechanical tissues.
Also called bundle of isoglosses.Dialect Geography. a group of close isoglosses running in approximately the same direction, especially when taken as evidence of an important dialect division.
Anatomy, Zoology. an aggregation of fibers, as of nerves or muscles.
verb (used with object),bun·dled,bun·dling.
to tie together or wrap in a bundle: Bundle the newspapers for the trash man.
to send away hurriedly or unceremoniously (usually followed by off, out, etc.): They bundled her off to the country.
to offer or supply (related products or services) in a single transaction at one all-inclusive price.
verb (used without object),bun·dled,bun·dling.
to leave hurriedly or unceremoniously (usually followed by off, out, etc.): They indignantly bundled out of the meeting.
(especially of sweethearts during courtship in early New England) to lie in the same bed while fully clothed, as for privacy and warmth in a house where an entire family shared one room with a fireplace.
Verb Phrases
bundle up, to dress warmly or snugly: A blizzard was raging but the children were all bundled up.
Idioms
drop one's bundle, Australianand New ZealandSlang. to lose confidence or hope.
Origin of bundle
1350–1400;Middle Englishbundel < Middle Dutchbundel, bondel; akin to bind
1. Bundle,bunch refer to a number of things or an amount of something fastened or bound together. Bundle implies a close binding or grouping together, and often refers to a wrapped package: a bundle of laundry, of dry goods. A bunch is a number of things, usually all of the same kind, fastened together: a bunch of roses, of keys.
1640s, "a gathering into a bundle," verbal noun from bundle (v.). Meaning "sharing a bed for the night, fully dressed, wrapped up with someone of the opposite sex" (1782) is a former local custom in New England (especially Connecticut and southeastern Massachusetts). It was noted there from about 1750s and often regarded by outsiders as grossly immoral, but New Englanders wrote defenses of it and claimed it was practiced elsewhere, too. It seems to have died out with the 18th century.
I am no advocate for temptation; yet must say, that bundling has prevailed 160 years in New England, and, I verily believe, with ten times more chastity than the sitting on a sofa. I had daughters, and speak from near forty years' experience. Bundling takes place only in cold seasons of the year--the sofa in summer is more dangerous than the bed in winter. [The Rev. Samuel Peters, "A general history of Connecticut," 1782]
bundle
n.
early 14c., "bound collection of things," from Middle Dutch bondel, diminutive of bond, from binden "to bind," or perhaps a merger of this word and Old English byndele "binding," from Proto-Germanic *bundilin (cf. German bündel "to bundle"), from PIE root *bhendh- "tie" (see bend (v.)). Meaning "a lot of money" is from 1899. To be a bundle of nerves "very anxious" is from 1938.
bundle
v.
1620s, "to make into a bundle," from bundle (n.); meaning "to wrap up in warm heavy clothes" is from 1893. Meaning "to sleep with another, clothed, in the same bed," a noted former custom in New England, is from 1781. Meaning "to send away hurriedly" is from 1823. Related: Bundled; bundling.
