Branch1. (n.) A shoot or secondary stem growing from the main stem, or from a principal limb or bough of a tree or other plant.
2. (n.) 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.
3. (n.) Any member or part of a body or system; a distinct article; a section or subdivision; a department.
4. (n.) One of the portions of a curve that extends outwards to an indefinitely great distance; as, the branches of an hyperbola.
5. (n.) 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.
6. (n.) A warrant or commission given to a pilot, authorizing him to pilot vessels in certain waters.
7. (a.) 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.
8. (v. i.) To shoot or spread in branches; to separate into branches; to ramify.
9. (v. i.) To divide into separate parts or subdivision.
10. (v. t.) To divide as into branches; to make subordinate division in.
11. (v. t.) To adorn with needlework representing branches, flowers, or twigs.
Thesaurus Entries
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, bough, 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, department, deploy, derivation, descent, detour, deviate, dichotomize, digress, dimidiate, direct line, disperse, distaff side, divagate, divaricate, diverge, diversify, divide, division, effluent, el, elbow, electric railway, elevated, elevated railway, embankment, embassy, estate, executive office, expand, 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, limb, 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, offshoot, open, open up, order, organ, organization, outspread, outstretch, overgrow, overrun, part, 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, shoot, shop, side, sidetrack, siding, sike, slip, society