Batch \Batch\, n. [OE. bache, bacche, fr. AS. bacan to bake; cf.
   G. geb[aum]ck and D. baksel. See Bake, v. t.]
   [1913 Webster]
   1. The quantity of bread baked at one time.
      [1913 Webster]

   2. A quantity of anything produced at one operation; a group
      or collection of persons or things of the same kind; as, a
      batch of letters; the next batch of business. "A new batch
      of Lords." --Lady M. W. Montagu.
      [1913 Webster]

	

	batch
     n 1: all the loaves of bread baked at the same time
     2: (often followed by `of') a large number or amount or extent;
        "a batch of letters"; "a deal of trouble"; "a lot of
        money"; "he made a mint on the stock market"; "it must
        have cost plenty" [syn: deal, flock, good deal, great
        deal, hatful, heap, lot, mass, mess, mickle,
        mint, muckle, peck, pile, plenty, pot, quite
        a little, raft, sight, slew, spate, stack, tidy
        sum, wad, whole lot, whole slew]
     3: a collection of things or persons to be handled together
        [syn: clutch]
     v : batch together; assemble or process as a batch

	

	85 Moby Thesaurus words for "batch":
   amount, array, assortment, block, budget, bulk, bunch, bundle,
   chunk, clod, clump, cluster, clutch, collection, considerable,
   copse, count, crop, deal, dose, gob, gobs, good deal, great deal,
   group, grouping, groupment, grove, hassock, heap, heaps, hunk,
   knot, large amount, lashings, loads, loaf, lot, lots, lump, make,
   making, mass, measure, mess, mint, nugget, number, oodles, pack,
   parcel, part, pat, peck, pile, piles, portion, pot, quantity,
   quite a little, raft, rafts, ration, run, scads, set, shock, sight,
   slew, slews, small amount, spate, stack, stacks, stook, sum,
   thicket, tidy sum, tuft, tussock, volume, wad, wads, whole slew,
   wisp

	

	batch adj. 1. Non-interactive. Hackers use this somewhat more loosely
   than the traditional technical definitions justify; in particular,
   switches on a normally interactive program that prepare it to receive
   non-interactive command input are often referred to as `batch mode'
   switches. A `batch file' is a series of instructions written to be
   handed to an interactive program running in batch mode. 2. Performance
   of dreary tasks all at one sitting. "I finally sat down in batch mode
   and wrote out checks for all those bills; I guess they'll turn the
   electricity back on next week..." 3. `batching up': Accumulation of a
   number of small tasks that can be lumped together for greater
   efficiency. "I'm batching up those letters to send sometime" "I'm
   batching up bottles to take to the recycling center."