cluster

noun

1. A bunch or group of several discrete items that are close to each other.

   “a cluster of islands”

   “A cluster of flowers grew in the pot.”

   “Her deeds vvere like great gluſters of ripe grapes, / VVhich load the bunches of the fruitfull vine: / Offring to fall into each mouth that gapes, / And fill the ſame vvith ſtore of timely vvine.”

   “VVoe is mee, for I am as when they haue gathered the ſummer fruits, as the grape gleanings of the vintage: there is no cluſter to eate: my ſoule deſired the firſt ripe fruit.”

   “The Father of Nic. Fontanus ſavv five Vertebræ or VVhirle-bones of the Spina in a cluſter like a round ball, in the Body of a Porter that carried burthens.”

2. A bunch or group of several discrete items that are close to each other.

   “The Pleiades cluster contains seven bright stars.”

   “My fellow biotic: You have been selected to receive this transmission because of our shared plight. Few understand us, fewer tolerate us. We must stand together. We must build our own new world. Come. Join us in the Hawking Eta cluster. Only as one body can we right the wrongs done to our kind.”

3. (physical)A bunch or group of several discrete items that are close to each other.
4. A bunch or group of several discrete items that are close to each other.

   “A computer cluster is a collection of two or more computers used to execute a given problem or section. Typically, in a computer cluster, the interconnection network tying the computers together is a local area network (LAN). […] The computers in the cluster communicate among themselves and among the shared memory.”

5. A bunch or group of several discrete items that are close to each other.
6. A bunch or group of several discrete items that are close to each other.

   “A leukemia cluster has developed in the town.”

7. A bunch or group of several discrete items that are close to each other.

   “examples of clusters would include in accordance with, so far, and the results of”

8. A bunch or group of several discrete items that are close to each other.
9. (US)A bunch or group of several discrete items that are close to each other.
10. A bunch or group of several discrete items that are close to each other.
11. A bunch or group of several discrete items that are close to each other.

    “The word scrub begins with a cluster of three consonants.”

12. A bunch or group of several discrete items that are close to each other.
13. A number of individuals (animals or people) collected in one place or grouped together; a crowd, a mob, a swarm.

    “VVe lou'd him, / But like Beaſts / And Covvardly Nobles, / Gaue vvay vnto your Cluſters, vvho did hoote / Him out o' th' Citty.”

    “[T]hey all alight, and then they go to the ſecond gate, and if peraduenture they cannot get in, they ſit there vvithout, as Bees doe in the Sunne, all in a cluſter.”

    “As Bees / In ſpring time, when the Sun with Taurus rides, / Poure forth their populous youth about the Hive / In cluſters; they among freſh dews and flowers / Flie to and fro, […]”

    “Earless ghost swift moths become "invisible" to echolocating bats by forming mating clusters close (less than half a meter) above vegetation and effectively blending into the clutter of echoes that the bat receives from the leaves and stems around them.”

14. (euphemistic, form-of, slang)Euphemistic form of clusterfuck (“a chaotic situation where everything seems to go wrong”).

verb

1. (transitive)To collect (animals, people, objects, data points, etc) into clusters (noun sense 1).

   “The consciousness of such an action will give her features a nobler life on this illustrious day, than all the jewels that can hang in her hair or can be clustered in her bosom.”

   “Not less the bee would range her cells, / The furzy prickle fire the dells, / The foxglove cluster dappled bells.”

   “The queen-bee of the children-swarm, the wise little Louise, sate herself down at the window, and four other little heads clustered themselves about her, fervent and inquisitive, and almost pushing her away in their impatient zeal to get a peep at the arrival.”

2. (transitive)To cover (with clusters); to scatter or strew in clusters (within); to distribute (objects) within such that they form clusters.

   “The sea is clustered with islands.”

3. (intransitive)To form a cluster or group; to assemble, to gather.

   “The children clustered around the puppy.”

   “[T]he fruite cluſtereth togyther lyke to ſmal grapes, which in the beginning is greene, and afterwarde when it is ripe, al blacke.”

   “VVoes cluſter; rare are ſolitary VVoes; / They love a Train; they tread each other's Heel: […]”

   “I met a little cottage girl, / She was eight years old, she said; / Her hair was thick with many a curl / That cluster'd round her head.”

   “Oh grief to think, that grapes of gall / Should cluster round thine healthiest shoot!”