Crowds
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crowd 1
(kroud)n.
1. A large number of persons gathered together; a throng.
2. The common people; the populace.
3. A group of people united by a common characteristic, as age, interest, or vocation: the over-30 crowd.
4. A group of people attending a public function; an audience: The play drew a small but appreciative crowd.
5. A large number of things positioned or considered together.
v. crowd·ed, crowd·ing, crowds
v.intr.
1. To gather together in a limited space: The children crowded around the TV.
2. To move forward by pressing or shoving: A bevy of reporters crowded toward the candidate.
v.tr.
Idiom: 1. To force by pressing or shoving: Police crowded the spectators back to the viewing stand.
2. To force away by taking up space; displace: Urban sprawl crowded the farmers out of the valley.
3. To draw or stand very near or too near to: The batter crowded the plate. Please don't crowd me.
4. To press, cram, or force tightly together: crowded the clothes into the closet.
5. To fill or occupy to overflowing: Books crowded the shelves.
6. Informal To put pressure on; assail: Dark thoughts were crowding him.
crowd (on) sail Nautical
To spread a large amount of sail to increase speed.
[From Middle English crowden, to crowd, press, from Old English crūdan, to hasten, press.]
crowd′er n.
Synonyms: crowd1, crush, flock1, horde, mob, throng
These nouns denote a large group of people gathered close to one another: a crowd of well-wishers; a crush of autograph seekers; a flock of schoolchildren; a horde of demonstrators; a mob of hard-rock enthusiasts; throngs of tourists.
These nouns denote a large group of people gathered close to one another: a crowd of well-wishers; a crush of autograph seekers; a flock of schoolchildren; a horde of demonstrators; a mob of hard-rock enthusiasts; throngs of tourists.
crowd 2
(kroud, kro͞od)n.
1. An ancient Celtic stringed instrument that was bowed or plucked. Also called crwth.
2. Chiefly British A fiddle.
[Middle English croud, from Middle Welsh crwth.]
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
Crowds
See also mob.
a mania for crowds. Also called ochlomania.
a fondness for crowds. — demophil, demophile. n.
an abnormal fear of crowds. Also called ochlophobia.
government by the mob; the mob as ruler or dominant force in society. — mobocrat, n. — mobocratic, adj.
demomania.
demophobia.
an ancient military formation of serried ranks surrounded by shields; hence, any crowded mass of people or group united for a common purpose.
-Ologies & -Isms. Copyright 2008 The Gale Group, Inc. All rights reserved.
Crowds
See Also: CLOSENESS
- About as much privacy as a statue in the park —Anon
- As lacking in privacy as a goldfish —Anon
- Bunched and jammed together as solidly as the bristles in a brush —Mark Twain
- Came crowding like the waves of ocean, one on the other —Lord Byron
- Clustering like a swarm of bees —Amy Lowell
- Crowded like a view of Venice —Frank O’Hara
- Crowded [stores] like tightly woven multi-colored carpet of people —Richard J. Meislin, New York Times
- The crowd in the lobby [of a hotel] was frozen in poses like the chorus at the curtain of a musical comedy —Vicki Baum
- The crowd scattered in all directions, like a flock of chickens among which a stone had been thrown —Aharon Megged
- Feel like a pressed flower —Edith Wharton
- Flocking … like geese —Sharon Sheehe Stark
- (The public was) flowing in like a river —Enid Bagnold
- Huddle together like birds in a storm —Robert Graves
- Jostled like two steers in the stock yards —A. R. Guerney, Jr.
- Loaded up like a garbage truck —Paige Mitchell
- Man … still, like a hen, he likes his private run —W. H. Auden
- Men milled everywhere, like cattle in a lightning storm —James Crumley
- Mobs in their emotions are much like children, subject to the same tantrums and fits of fury —Euripides
- No more privacy than a traffic cop —Anon
- [People] packed as closely as herring in a barrel —Sholom Aleichem
- Packed like a cattle pen —Paige Mitchell
- The people bunched like cattle in a storm —James Crumley
- People [on train] … hanging from straps like sides of beef on a hook —Julio CortÁzar
- People [at a party] … packed tight as a rugby scrum —Nadine Gordimer
If Gordimer’s story The Smell of Death and Flowers had been set in America, it might have had a football lineup for the rugby scrum.
- People streaming from the plane like busy insects on the march —Sylvia Berkman
- Stood packed like matches in an upright box —William Faulkner
- Swarm like bees —Anon
- Swarm like summer flies —William Shakespeare
- (Apartments) tenanted tight as hen-houses —Barbara Howes
- (Surrounded by militia … ) thick as aphids —Derek Lambert
Similes Dictionary, 1st Edition. © 1988 The Gale Group, Inc. All rights reserved.