noun
WelshUsed as a term of endearment, often after a personal name.
- ‘Thomas bach, you are looking tired’
Origin
Welsh, literally ‘little’.
verb
[no object] informal Australian, New Zealand(especially of a man) live alone and do one's own cooking and housekeeping.
- ‘Baldy bached in a hut down the road a bit’
- ‘At first Joe bached in an old house on the farm, but later built a new house doing most of the building himself.’
- ‘It must have been the first Saturday that we were left ‘baching‘.’
- ‘Keith refers to their time in the house as ‘baching’, although he was only 16-and-a-half at the time.’
noun
informal New ZealandA small holiday house.
- ‘Removal of the baches was required under the North Canterbury Conservation Board's 1998 plan for the reserve.’
- ‘I have also heard, and certainly saw on our boat trip in, that there are many privately owned baches which can be rented.’
- ‘The seaside baches have become a lot bigger and more posh in the last 50 years than they used to be, and cost a lot more to buy.’
- ‘Boatsheds were built along the lake edge at Kerr Bay and baches were built among the beech trees on the slopes above the bay.’
- ‘He spent all his time at the bach out on the deck or in the house reading, except when they entertained.’
Origin
Late 19th century (as a verb): abbreviation of bachelor.
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