branch
/brɑːn(t)ʃ
/noun
1A part of a tree which grows out from the trunk or from a bough: Sophie was in the branches of a tree eating an apple...
- Of special interest are the bromeliads that grow on trunks and along branches of big trees.
- Twenty or thirty large, gently fluted pods grow directly from the tree's trunk and branches, dangling like holiday ornaments.
- In other cases, growing trees had their branches cut regularly on one side, because they leaned on to private property; the trees grew up lopsided and leaned far on to the roads.
Synonyms
bough, limb, arm, offshoot
1.1A lateral extension or subdivision extending from the main part of a river, road, railway, etc. a branch of the Clinton River...
- In the Rio Negro, it inhabits the large swamps that form where tributaries meet the main branch of the river.
- That hill led to the back of another sight, and that sight was connected to a branch of the main road.
- The main station is being built at Ondangwa where the railway branches to Oshakati and to Oshikango.
Synonyms
tributary, feeder, side stream
1.2A division or office of a large business or organization, operating locally or having a particular function: he went to work at our Birmingham branch...
- Postbank operates 30 branches and 93 offices across the country and is represented in about 2300 post offices in Bulgaria.
- In the Rangoon division, 18 out of 40 branch offices are now operating, with nine permitted to put up their old signboards.
- This organization replaced an association of NGOs working for alcohol abstinence and had branch offices operating on regional and local levels.
Synonyms
division, subdivision, section, subsection, department, sector, part, side, wing;
area, sphere, discipline, field
office, bureau, agency;
affiliate, subsidiary, offshoot, satellite;
chapter, lodge
1.3A conceptual subdivision of a family, subject, group of languages, etc. a branch of mathematics called graph theory...
- Otherwise, the tongues spoken in Indonesia belong to several branches of the Austronesian language family.
- All the national languages, with the exception of the official language, English, are Bantu, a branch of the Niger-Congo language family.
- The Estonian language is a branch of the Baltic-Finnish group of the Finno-Ugric family, related to Finnish.
verb [no object]
1(Of a road or path) divide into one or more subdivisions: follow this track south until it branches into two...
- In the centre of the village, a small side road branched away and climbed a steep brae beyond the houses and back gardens.
- There was a conservatory situated a small distance behind the house, and a small path branched from the driveway to the door.
- Soon the crack widened, however, and their path branched down into the darkness.
Synonyms
fork, bifurcate, divide, subdivide, split, separate, go in different directions
technical furcate, divaricate
diverge from, deviate from, depart from, turn aside from, shoot off from, split off from, go off at a tangent from;
fan out from, ray out from, radiate from
technical ramify
1.1 (branch off) Diverge from the main route or part: the road branched off at the market town...
- Some RTC buses branched off from the main roads to find emergency escape routes like by-lanes, already jammed by cars and two-wheelers!
- Nestle into one of several campsites at the base of the 300-foot-tall amphitheater, and explore the many slots and dry waterfalls branching off from Labyrinth's main canyon.
- A more adventurous method would be to simply explore each road radiating from the main junction or branching off into narrow arteries, and you'll be bound to hit the same spots, more or less.
1.2 (branch out) Extend or expand one’s activities or interests in a new direction: the company is branching out into Europe...
- He said the tour has given the band the chance to branch out and explore different directions and to satisfy their eclectic tastes.
- Certainly, they branch out in different directions in attitudes to football management.
- Acting is still a great love of mine, but I thought it was time to branch out and expand my world.
Synonyms
expand, spread out, open up, extend;
diversify, spread/stretch one's wings, broaden one's horizons
2(Of a tree or plant) bear or send out branches: this rose has a tendency to branch and spread at the top (as adjective branching) the branching heads of large yellow daisies...
- The basal stems can be confused with those of L. mucronata, but that species has branched basal stems that are prostrate and petiolate basal leaves.
- Mosses branched from the common ancestor of vascular plants around 400 MYA.
- Plants show similar repetitive structures in, for example, the veins on a leaf or a tree's branching limbs.
Derivatives
branchlet
/ noun ...- The shoots grow off of longer horizontal or drooping branchlets.
- Overlap one branchlet or bundle over the cut ends of the last to hide them and the wire.
- Here we introduce a new procedure, branchlet shaking, and compare it with chemical knockdown.
branch-like
- To further draw the eye to the outside, Anne-Marie makes use of a bench that runs from the living room to the portico by placing several highly-coloured, branch-like forms cast from resin on either side of the glass partition.
- Shanghai is the most important location for branch-like activities, such as manufacturing, assembly/processing, and raw material sourcing.
- For example, she replaces bold geometrics with abstracted natural patterns in floor-coverings and uses branch-like forms overhead to make ceilings reminiscent of tree canopies.
branchy
/ adjective ...- It is a branchy, brushy, rooty tree, without leaves.
- I began raking up the leaves and branches I'd trimmed, and clearing out a lot of debris that had collected in and around the branchy bush.
- The brain, at least from afar, looks like a plate of macaroni, its branchy veins rivers of red pepper sauce.
Origin
Middle English: from Old French branche, from late Latin branca 'paw'.