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a quantity or number coming at one time or taken together:
a batch of prisoners.
the quantity of material prepared or required for one operation:
mixing a batch of concrete.
the quantity of bread, cookies, dough, or the like, made at one baking.
Computers.

a group of jobs, data, or programs treated as a unit for computer processing.
batch processing.

Glassmaking.

a quantity of raw materials mixed in proper proportions and prepared for fusion into glass.
the material so mixed.

to combine, mix, or process in a batch.
bach.
Historical Examples

I was just batching, and now and then people would come in and report them to me.
Slave Narratives: Arkansas Narratives Work Projects Administration

I’m batching with Battray, the police inspector, and three other fellows.
Chinkie’s Flat and Other Stories Louis Becke

The house I thought very comfortable for two men who were ‘batching.’
My Antonia Willa Cather

I been batching ’bout 20 year and I done los’ track mos’ dem chillen.
Slave Narratives: a Folk History of Slavery in the United States From Interviews with Former Slaves. Work Projects Administration

A list of the bales for the batch is sent to the batching department, this list being known as a “batch-ticket.”
The Jute Industry: From Seed to Finished Cloth T. Woodhouse and P. Kilgour

It will be understood that all makers of softening machines supply the automatic lubricating or batching apparatus when desired.
The Jute Industry: From Seed to Finished Cloth T. Woodhouse and P. Kilgour

noun
a group or set of usually similar objects or people, esp if sent off, handled, or arriving at the same time
the bread, cakes, etc, produced at one baking
the amount of a material needed for an operation
Also called batch loaf. a tall loaf having a close texture and a thick crust on the top and bottom, baked as part of a batch: the sides of each loaf are greased so that they will pull apart after baking to have pale crumby sides; made esp in Scotland and Ireland Compare pan loaf
verb (transitive)
to group (items) for efficient processing
to handle by batch processing
verb (Austral & NZ, informal)
(intransitive) (of a man) to do his own cooking and housekeeping
to live alone
n.

Old English *bæcce “something baked,” from bacan “bake” (see bake (v.)). Batch is to bake as watch (n.) is to wake and match (n.2) “one of a pair” is to make. Extended 1713 to “any quantity produced at one operation.”

Related Terms

bach, lay a batch