Definition of bun in English:

noun

• 1A small cake, typically containing dried fruit.

  ‘a currant bun’

  More example sentences

  • ‘Her favourites are cream buns and rock buns, and when I take her some her face lights up.’
  • ‘So indeed the Berliner, a bun or a jam doughnut, also had to be changed in name.’
  • ‘There will be a wide selection of produce on sale from fresh home baking - from breads, tarts, quiches, cakes, pies, buns - all to make the mouth water.’
  • ‘There were sack races, a tea in the marquee with cakes, buns and sandwiches for 200, and a lad who won the prize for his branch-covered fancy dress of Boots.’
  • ‘Save some room for dessert: homemade warm, frosted cinnamon buns and chocolate-chip cookies.’
  • ‘Sally Lunn's buns are perhaps not as well known as Bakewell tart, Richmond maids of honour and Eccles cakes but that is because they never appear outside their home town.’
  • ‘Where there might once have been fresh buns, or cakes, or pastries, now there's just a tray of mass-produced muffins wrapped in plastic with an sell-by date several months into the future.’
  • ‘These offered the most delicious apple strudel, chocolate brownies and buns!’
  • ‘But other brands of crumb cakes, doughnuts, and cinnamon buns probably have as much trans.’
  • ‘Children at Clevedon House raised more than £400 by taking in cakes and buns to sell.’
  • ‘These were public teapot teas, where we pretended that we were just like everyone else, with cakes or buns.’
  • ‘Imagine children having tea, inevitably squabbling over the buns, teacakes, muffins and - this being a British expression - crumpets.’
  • ‘Tea, hot-cross buns and Easter eggs, completed the afternoon.’
  • ‘His wife performed the same function but with more buns and cakes.’
  • ‘Check the label on the biscuits and you'll see that some scones or buns or wholemeal biscuits are the better alternative.’
  • ‘Will local bakeries that produce buns and chocolate eclairs be affected?’
  • ‘Even for those who did not grow up with it, there is something therapeutic about the activity involved - the alluring aromas wafting from the oven, and the comforting taste of freshly baked cakes or buns.’
  • ‘Good Friday is celebrated with a traditional breakfast of codfish cakes and hot-cross buns.’
  • ‘When I was a student, it was a warm refuge to sip on bottomless cups of coffee and indulge in steamed fruit pudding and toasted cinnamon buns.’
  • ‘At its simplest, coffee is accompanied by a sweet bread called pulla; more elaborate coffees may include a salty dish as well as a pulla ring or buns, cookies, and cakes.’

  1. 1.1 A bread roll.
     Example sentences

     • ‘Also, anyone who asks for a hamburger without a bun should be left alone to eat in their Atkins friendly fraudulence.’
     • ‘Even when it isn't, most people want more on their hamburger than a bun and a little ketchup.’
     • ‘They all indulged in the delicious Bar-b-cue food of sausages, burgers on buns and hot dog rolls.’
     • ‘Chief Reilly lifted the bun of his pastrami and mayo on a kaiser roll, sniffing at it suspiciously.’
     • ‘Serve warm, sandwiched in a bread bun with a stack of fresh salad.’
     • ‘There were sweet potatoes with cheese and sour cream, corn on the cob, hot dogs in buns along with ketchup and mustard, then a bowl full of coleslaw, and squares of red Jell-o set out on a plate.’
     • ‘Try a biscuit crust, tortillas, flatbread such as pita, bun halves or a baguette cut in half lengthwise as bases for pizza toppings.’
     • ‘It offers 740 calories and 4.9 grams of salt comprising two slices of cheese, two eggs, three strips of bacon and a sausage patty on a bun.’
     • ‘There is, of course, the option of sausage or schnitzel on a bun, and sauerkraut is available, but will cost you extra.’
     • ‘White bread, in the form of sliced and in the form of hamburger and hot dog buns make up over 50% of what's out there.’
     • ‘Then, I imagine, it is pumped into sausage skins and served in a bun smothered in ketchup and mustard.’
     • ‘Serve while still hot or slap into a bun with a burger and some salad.’
     • ‘Serve on whole-wheat buns or Kaiser rolls, or spread on top of rice.’
     • ‘It also has dual gas controls with a full range of temperatures, so you can sear burgers on one side of the grill and gently toast buns on the other, just by adjusting the flame.’
     • ‘Have it on one of those excellent rye bread buns you do so well.’
     • ‘Ring the changes with pitta bread or sesame buns, instead of the usual sliced bread.’
     • ‘The crust and the sandwich buns were all freshly made, light warm and doughy.’
     • ‘There were 3 cute-looking little burgers in mini bread buns.’
     • ‘The children helped bakers from Bettys, who produced the bread buns, and were served sausages cooked by Ladies in Pigs, a group of farmers' wives who promote the merits of British pork.’
     • ‘It's served on a ciabatta bun and everything about it was perfect.’
  2. 1.2 (in Scotland and Jamaica) a rich fruit cake or currant bread.
     Example sentences

     • ‘They can also be shredded into scones or bread to add a gorgeous yellow colour, or added to savoury tarts, sweet buns or sponge puddings.’
     • ‘Scottish baking is superb, apart from the obvious shortbread; pies, scones, buns, fruit cake.’
     • ‘Try an Easter recipe from our collection of bread recipes, including our Jamaican Easter bun recipe.’
     • ‘Their patties, Jamaican hard-dough bread, buns, and cakes were a hit; within four years the family had opened stores in New Jersey and Connecticut.’

• 2A hairstyle in which the hair is drawn back into a tight coil at the back of the head.

  Example sentences

  • ‘My grandmother Nellie wore long skirts and aprons, and her hair in a tight bun at the back of her neck.’
  • ‘Quick add-ons like wigs, buns, falls and ponytails give you salon hair in-between appointments and they're recyclable.’
  • ‘There are contrasts in hair trends right now, from small, tight buns to big fluffy glamazon hair.’
  • ‘Smiling, she tidied up her hair into a tight bun, with a thin, wooden chopstick going through it.’
  • ‘Maids always wore their hair in tight buns, but the hair of this maid was falling down around her neck.’
  • ‘Her hair was pulled up into a bun that let tight ringlets dangle down, her dress was white and iridescent.’
  • ‘I quickly pulled my hair into a tight bun, not wanting to bother with a swim cap.’
  • ‘Her hair was pulled into a tight bun exposing her beautiful neck.’
  • ‘Her hair was no longer in a tight bun, but in a loose ponytail.’
  • ‘She was an aging woman, with her grey hair tied back in a tight bun.’
  • ‘If local women venture onto the dusty streets at all, they sport ankle-length dresses, buttoned-up blouses and 1930s hairstyles with buns and pompadours.’
  • ‘She looked very muscular and in her mid-forties with rich, dark brown curly hair put back in a tight bun.’
  • ‘They work great on my very thick, pretty curly hair for ponytails and sloppy buns.’
  • ‘Her hair was pulled back into a tight bun, with a few soft bangs curled around, just framing her brow.’
  • ‘After dressing, Abby dampened her hair, pulling it up in a tight bun and tying a black and white ribbon around it.’
  • ‘Lydia Scott smoothed a flyaway strand of hair back into her tight bun.’
  • ‘She was young, only about twenty-two, but the way she wore her blond hair pulled back in a tight bun added years onto her age.’
  • ‘To keep her hair from falling where it wasn't needed, she had pulled it up to a tight bun and sprayed as much hair spray as the ozone layer allowed.’
  • ‘Long hair was always swept back into a ponytail or bun, and short hair is just combed into place.’
  • ‘Some people have a natural ability to create buns, updos or French Twists on their own hair without any assistance.’

• 3bunsNorth American informal A person's buttocks.

  Example sentences

  • ‘Tight, toned and shapely buns and thighs can be yours with this energetic new yoga program.’
  • ‘The only reason, he adds, that I don't have women walking by me and with a sexy glance saying, "Nice Buns", and smiling knowingly, is because I do not use the Bowflexor.’
  • ‘It takes a very secure individual to call their buttocks, buns.’

  Synonyms

  buttocks, behind, backside, rear, rear end, seat, haunches, cheeks

  View synonyms