Definition of "branch" []

• A secondary woody stem or limb growing from the trunk or main stem of a tree or shrub or from another secondary limb. (noun)
• A lateral division or subdivision of certain other plant parts, such as a root or flower cluster. (noun)
• Something that resembles a branch of a tree, as in form or function, as: (noun)
• A secondary outgrowth or subdivision of a main axis, such as the tine of a deer's antlers. (noun)
• Anatomy An offshoot or a division of the main portion of a structure, especially that of a nerve, blood vessel, or lymphatic vessel; a ramus. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "Their name, which he had long avoided mentioning, was incessantly on his lips: but always the same, always inclined naturally and systematically, to have more strings than one to his bow, he appeared to incline alternately _for the younger branch, and for the reigning branch_."
• "The prophecy that Jesus would be called a Nazarene is not found in the Old Testament, though some believe it might have referred to the word branch in Isaiah 11:1."
• "There's a small branch library down the road from us, and the big main branch is a short drive away."