Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (US) a bachelor; thus old bach, a confirmed bachelor.

1842		Whip & Satirist of NY & Brooklyn (NY) 24 Sept. n.p.: the whip wants to know What became of all of the old baches steamboats .
1850		Manchester Spy (NH) 5 Oct. n.p.: [T]he free rory, tory life of a ‘Bach’.
1855		Golden Era (S.F.) 15 Apr. 1/3: You will soon be [...] a ‘dried up’ old bach., and in fact, ‘good for nix’ [DA].
1863		Moulton letter in Drickamer Fort Lyon to Harper’s Ferry (1987) 106: It seems Miss Joyner was glad to ‘take up’ with an old bach.
1877		Witchita City Eagle (KS) 1 Feb. 2/6: It may be a source of [...] annoyance to the Attica girls to see the bach in this contented state, and they may lay their traps and giggle and put on style, yet there is one sensible old bach whom they may never hope to catch.
1886		Sedalia Wkly Bazoo (MO) 16 Feb. 4/6: Within our midst there dwells a gent [...] of an old bach.
1894		Courier (Lincoln, NE) 12 May 12/2: It is urged against Jack McColl as a reason why he should not be nominated for governor, that he is an old bach .
1900		Sun (NY) 14 Jan. 6/2: Wonder if the Major is a old bach.
1905		N.Y. Tribune 4 June 29/2: A widderer or an old bach started out [...] to call on a widder.
1910		F.P. Dunne Mr Dooley Says 2: That’s why I’m a batch.
1914		E. Wittmann ‘Clipped Words’ in DN IV:ii 121: bach, from bachelor. ‘He’s an old bach’.
1915		S. Ford Shorty McCabe on the Job 241: But there I was, an old bach, and not much good to anybody anyway.
1922		P.A. Rollins Cowboy 164: When an ummarried man, a ‘batch’ or ‘bach,’ planted a few irregular rows of onions.
1925		K. Mullen ‘Westernisms’ in AS I:3 150: The word ‘bach’ is used seriously also, originating probably in the preponderance of bachelors in the West.
1936		R.F. Adams Cowboy Lingo 198: A ‘batch’ was an unmarried man, usually one living alone.
1947		Chicago Daily News 14 May 18/4: No, I’m no old bach but a middle-aged father of two kids [DA].

2. attrib. use of sense 1.

1911

S. Ford Torchy 189: It’s a bach joint such as you might dream about [...] guns and swords and such knickknacks on the walls.

3. (Aus./N.Z.) a farm-worker’s cottage [i.e. a bachelor pad].

1923		F. Anthony ‘Helping Out Gus’ in Me And Gus (1977) 15: He breezed into the bach as large as life.
1932		Tararua Tramper Dec. 3 n.p.: Mr Baine [...] directed the festivities at Mr. Jones’ [i.e. a farmer’s] bach [DNZE].
1938		F. Anthony ‘Gus Tomlins’ in Me And Gus (1977) 122: All the mouldy old agriculture tomes that littered up his bach.
1940		F. Sargeson ‘An Affair of the Heart’ in A Man And His Wife (1944) 35: Certainly they were poor, and lived in a tumble-down bach with sacking nailed on to the walls to keep the wind out.
1950		A.L. Cherrill Story of a N.Z. Sheep Farm 63: An untidy two roomed cottage. Could that be the batch of which Julius had so often spoken.
1957		D. Niland Call Me When the Cross Turns Over (1958) 110: A sort of bach, you know. Everyone calls it the Cubby.
1965		J. Watson Stand in Rain 118: There’s an empty bach up in the scrub a bit, we can have it for free [DNZE].
1976		R. Morrieson Pallet on the Floor 121: We’re grogging on regardless. Party in Johnny Whakaro’s batch.
1980		L. Mantell Murder and Chips 153: Mr Robinson was a share-milker on a local farm. He lived by himself in a batch on a back paddock.

4. (N.Z., also bache) a weekend cottage [i.e. a bachelor pad].

1924		Otago Witness (Dunedin) 30 Dec. 71: My girl friend and I had a batch at Takapuna for a fortnight [DNZE].
1934		letter 6 Aug. in Letters of D’Arcy Cresswell (1971) 90: Soon after you left I took a bach by the outer channel at Castor Bay.
1946		P.L. Soljak N.Z. 117: New Zealanders have coined or adapted many expressions to meet local requirements, as illustrated by the following: [...] bach or batch: small cottage.
1957		J. Frame Owls Do Cry (1967) 21: Francie Withers is poor. The Withers haven’t a week-end bach [...] nor have they got a vacuum cleaner.
1958		L.F. Cooley Run For Home (1959) 221: She had always spent several weeks at her family’s ‘bache’ on Rangitoto Island.
1964		G. Dempsey Little World of Stewart Island 6: The North Islander talks of his beach cottage, or bach [DNZE].
1978		V.G. O’Sullivan Boy, The Bridge, The River 130: He shook it out under the light from above the table in the bach.
1981		M. Gee Meg 219: Robert’s bach was dark.
1993		Eve. Post (Wellington) 10 Feb. 24: A Christchurch businessman who applied for unemployment benefit arranged a scheme so that he could keep a $300,000 bach [DNZE].
2002		A. Duff Jake’s Long Shadow 15: In winter we go to the beach [...] we’re going to buy a bach.
2003		McGill Reed Dict. of N.Z. Sl.