branch

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   a division of some larger or more complex organization

   a branch of Congress

2. 2
   noun

   a part of a forked or branching shape

   I broke off one of the branches.

3. 3
   verb

   to divide into two or more branches so as to form a fork

   The road branched in many directions.

4. 4
   verb

   to grow and send out branches or branch-like structures

   Veins branch through the body.

5. 5
   noun

   The woody part of a tree arising from the trunk and usually dividing.

   Selfe loue, to him ſelf tender, to the reſt tough, / Is, of iuſt iuſtice, neither roote, braunce, nor bough. / Loue (namely ſelfe loue) corruptibly growyng, / Is cheefe lodeſter of lets, in iuſtice ſhowing.

6. 6
   noun

   Any of the parts of something that divides like the branch of a tree.

   the branch of an antler, a chandelier, or a railway

7. 7
   noun

   A creek or stream which flows into a larger river.

   branch water

8. 8
   noun

   One of the portions of a curve that extends outwards to an indefinitely great distance.

   the branches of a hyperbola

Etymology

From Middle English branche, braunche, bronche, from Old French branche, branke, from Late Latin branca (“footprint”, later also “paw, claw”) (whence Middle High German pranke, German Pranke (“paw”)), of unknown origin. Perhaps of Celtic origin, from a hypothetical Gaulish *vranca, from Proto-Indo-European *wrónk-eh₂. If so, then Indo-European cognates include Old Norse rá, vró (“angle, corner”), and possibly Lithuanian rankà (“hand”), Old Church Slavonic рѫка (rǫka, “hand”), Albanian rangë (“yardwork”). The verb is from Middle English braunchen, from the noun.