Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A bachelor.
  • intransitive verb To live alone and keep house as a bachelor.
  • idiom (bach it) To bach.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun New Zealand, northern A holiday home, usually small and near the beach, often with only one or two rooms and of simple construction.
  • verb US To live apart from women, as with the period when a divorce is in progress (compare bachelor pad).

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Short for bachelor.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Probable shortening of bachelor

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Examples

Comments

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  • In Wales, a term of endearment similar to butty. Directly from Welsh, in which the literal meaning is little or lesser.

    E.g. "alright bach, how you keeping? ages it's been since I seen you last!"

    April 30, 2008

  • Also (New Zealand) a holiday home at the beach. See Keri Hulme passim, or this Antarctic spokesperson (BBC news, 25-05-09):

    The A-Frame represented something uniquely Kiwi in Antarctica. It was the concept of a mountain hut mixed with a bach and it said something about who we are.

    May 26, 2009

  • The NZ version rhymes with pumpkin patch. I'm told it is a shortening of bachelor house or bachelor pad.

    May 26, 2009

  • an archaic North American phrasal verb: to bach it, that is, take up a bach for your living quarters.

    May 26, 2009