bushel
1 Americannoun
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bushels
plural
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a unit of dry measure containing 4 pecks, equivalent in the U.S. (and formerly in England) to 2,150.42 cubic inches or 35.24 liters Winchester bushel, and in Great Britain to 2,219.36 cubic inches or 36.38 liters Imperial bushel. bu., bush.
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a container of this capacity.
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a unit of weight equal to the weight of a bushel of a given commodity.
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a large, unspecified amount or number.
a bushel of kisses.
verb (used with object)
noun
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a Brit unit of dry or liquid measure equal to 8 Imperial gallons. 1 Imperial bushel is equivalent to 0.036 37 cubic metres
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a US unit of dry measure equal to 64 US pints. 1 US bushel is equivalent to 0.035 24 cubic metres
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a container with a capacity equal to either of these quantities
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informal a large amount; great deal
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to conceal one's abilities or good qualities
verb
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of bushel1
First recorded in 1250–1300; Middle English bu(i)sshel, bus(s)chel, from Old French boissel, boistiel, equivalent to boisse unit of measure for grain (from assumed Gaulish bostia; compare Middle Irish bas, bos “palm of the hand, handbreadth,” Breton boz “palm of the hand”) + -el noun suffix
Origin of bushel2
1875–80, < German bosseln to patch < French bosseler to emboss; see boss 2
Vocabulary lists containing bushel
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
The corn and soybean farmer watched as prices fell from $7 a bushel for corn in early 2022 to just $4.29 three years later.
From BBC ● Oct. 11, 2026
At 60 pounds to the bushel, that is roughly 800 pounds of soybeans for every American.
From Salon ● Sep. 13, 2026
Wheat prices surged to record highs above $13 per bushel in early 2022.
From MarketWatch ● May 4, 2026
But they remain roughly 80 cents to 90 cents a bushel off from what Purdue forecasts as “break-even levels” for farmers working on average productivity soil.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 26, 2026
He backed the truck so that its back section was where the filled bushel baskets waited and its nose pointed almost straight down the road to the farmhouse.
From "Homecoming" by Cynthia Voigt
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The very night he died, in 1935, his widow and her sister shoveled bushels of his private papers into their West Adams mansion’s basement incinerator.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 30, 2026
U.S. farmers will produce a record-breaking harvest of 4.52 billion bushels of soybeans in 2026, according to projections from the U.S.
From Salon ● Sep. 13, 2026
U.S. corn yield forecast, in bushels an acre, for the 2026/27 season, down from the Agriculture Department’s projection in July for 183 bushels an acre.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 13, 2026
Analysts surveyed by The Wall Street Journal had forecast 2026 total wheat production to total 1.73 billion bushels.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 12, 2026
If I take Mr. Campbell's advice, I should order seven bushels of seed, all told, for my forty acres.
From "Hattie Big Sky" by Kirby Larson
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He did mostly cutting and fitting, but some "busheling."
From The Negro at Work in New York City A Study in Economic Progress by George Edmund Haynes
They got enough to keep 'em busy busheling the jobs them war correspondents turns in on them.
From Worrying Won't Win by Montague Glass
So his third evil is the busheling and harrying of genius….
From Fate Knocks at the Door A Novel by Will Levington Comfort
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