Branch

Definition of Branch

(Bot.) A shoot or secondary stem growing from the main stem, or from a principal limb or bough of a tree or other plant.

Any division extending like a branch; any arm or part connected with the main body of thing; ramification; as, the branch of an antler; the branch of a chandelier; a branch of a river; a branch of a railway.

Most of the branches , or streams, were dried up.

- W. Irving.

Any member or part of a body or system; a distinct article; a section or subdivision; a department.

It is a branch and parcel of mine oath.

- Shak.

(Geom.) One of the portions of a curve that extends outwards to an indefinitely great distance; as, the branches of an hyperbola.

A line of family descent, in distinction from some other line or lines from the same stock; any descendant in such a line; as, the English branch of a family.

His father, a younger branch of the ancient stock.

- Carew.

(Naut.) A warrant or commission given to a pilot, authorizing him to pilot vessels in certain waters.

Branches of a bridle
two pieces of bent iron, which bear the bit, the cross chains, and the curb.

Branch herring
See Alewife.

Root and branch
totally, wholly.

Diverging from, or tributary to, a main stock, line, way, theme, etc.; as, a branch vein; a branch road or line; a branch topic; a branch store.

v. i.

To shoot or spread in branches; to separate into branches; to ramify.

[imp. & p. p. Branched ( ); p. pr. & vb. n. Branching.]

To divide into separate parts or subdivision.

To branch off
to form a branch or a separate part; to diverge.

To branch out
to speak diffusively; to extend one's discourse to other topics than the main one; also, to enlarge the scope of one's business, etc.

To branch out into a long disputation.

- Spectator.

v. t.

To divide as into branches; to make subordinate division in.

To adorn with needlework representing branches, flowers, or twigs.

The train whereof loose far behind her strayed,
Branched with gold and pearl, most richly wrought.

- Spenser.

Related Words

L, V, adolescent stream, affiliate, affiliation, affluent, angle, angle off, apparentation, appendage, arm, arroyo, bayou, bear off, beck, bend, bifurcate, billabong, bine, biotype, birth, bisect, blood, bloodline, body, booking office, bourn, box office, bracket, braided stream, branch off, branch office, branch out, branchedness, branchiness, breed, brook, brooklet, burgeon, burn, by two, cabinet, cable railway, caste, category, chambers, chancellery, chancery, change the bearing, channel, chapter, church, clan, class, cleave, closet, cog railway, common ancestry, communion, community, confluent, confluent stream, consanguinity, consulate, corporate headquarters, crank, creek, crick, crook, crotch, crutch, curve, cut in two, deadwood, delta, den, dendritic drainage pattern, denomination, depart from, deploy, derivation, descent, detour, deviate, dichotomize, digress, dimidiate, direct line, disperse, distaff side, divagate, divaricate, diverge, diversify, effluent, el, elbow, electric railway, elevated, elevated railway, embankment, embassy, estate, executive office, extend, extraction, faction, family, fan, fan out, feeder, feeder line, fellowship, female line, filiation, fission, flagellum, flare, flowing stream, fluviation, fork, fresh, freshet, frond, furcate, furcula, furculum, genotype, genus, gill, grade, gravity-operated railway, groin, group, grouping, halve, hand, head, heading, headquarters, heel, home office, hook, horse railway, house, imp, in half, inguen, joint, junction, kill, kin, kingdom, label, lazy stream, leg, legation, level, light railroad, line, line of descent, lineage, link, lobe, lobule, local, lodge, main line, main office, male line, meandering stream, member, metro, midchannel, midstream, millstream, monorail, moving road, navigable river, office, offset, open, open up, order, organ, organization, outspread, outstretch, overgrow, overrun, party, persuasion, phylum, pigeonhole, pinion, position, post, predicament, prong, race, racing stream, rack railway, rack-and-pinion railway, rail, rail line, railroad, railway, ramage, ramification, ramify, rank, rating, religious order, river, rivulet, roadbed, roadway, rubric, run, rundle, runlet, runnel, runner, sarment, schism, school, scion, sect, sectarism, section, seed, segment, sept, series, service, set, sheer, shift, shop, side, sidetrack, siding, sike, slip, society, spear, spear side, species, spill stream, spin-off, spindle side, splay, split in two, spraddle, sprangle, sprawl, spray, spread like wildfire, spread out, sprig, sprit, sprout, spur, station, status, stem, stirps, stock, stolon, strain, stratum, stream, stream action, streamlet, street railway, streetcar line, study, subclass, subdivide, subdivision, subfamily, subgenus, subgroup, subkingdom, suborder, subsidiary, subspecies, subterranean river, subtribe, subway, succession, sucker, superclass, superfamily, superorder, superspecies, swerve, switch, switchback, sword side, tack, tail, tendril, terminal, terminus, thallus, ticket office, title, track, tram, tramline, transect, trend, trestle, tribe, trident, trifurcate, trolley line, trunk, trunk line, tube, turn, turn aside, turnout, twig, underground, unfold, variety, vary, veer, version, wadi, watercourse, waterway, widen, wing, wishbone, zag, zig, zigzag

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Brake shoe
Brake wheel
Brakeman
brakes
Braky
braless
Brama
Bramah press
Bramble
Bramble bush
Bramble finch
Bramble net
Brambled
Brambling
Brambly
Brame
Bramin
Bran
Bran-new
Brancard
-Branch-
Branch herring
Branch pilot
branched
Brancher
Branchery
Branches of a bridle
Branchia
Branchial
Branchial arches
Branchial clefts
Branchiate
Branchiferous
Branchiness
Branching
Branchiogastropoda
Branchiomerism
Branchiopod
Branchiopoda
Branchiostegal
Branchiostege

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