bushel

Etymology

From Middle English busshel, from Old French boissel, from boisse, a grain measure based on Gaulish *bostyā (“handful”), from Proto-Celtic *bostā (“palm, fist”) (compare Breton boz (“hollow of the hand”), Old Irish bas), from Proto-Indo-European *gwost-, *gwosdʰ- (“branch”).

noun

1. (historical) A dry measure, containing four pecks, eight gallons, or thirty-two quarts.
   The quarter, bushel, and peck are nearly universal measures of corn. 1882, James Edwin Thorold Rogers, A History of Agriculture and Prices in England, volume 4, page 207
2. A vessel of the capacity of a bushel, used in measuring; a bushel measure.
3. A quantity that fills a bushel measure.
   a heap containing ten bushels of apples
4. (colloquial) A large indefinite quantity.
5. (UK) The iron lining in the nave of a wheel.

verb

1. (US, tailoring, transitive, intransitive) To mend or repair clothes.
2. To pack grain, hops, etc. into bushel measures.