Library / English Dictionary

CROWD

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 I. (noun) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

A large number of things or people considered together

Example:

a crowd of insects assembled around the flowers

Classified under:

Nouns denoting groupings of people or objects

Hypernyms ("crowd" is a kind of...):

assemblage; gathering (a group of persons together in one place)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "crowd"):

army (a large number of people united for some specific purpose)

crush; jam; press (a dense crowd of people)

drove; horde; swarm (a moving crowd)

huddle (a disorganized and densely packed crowd)

mob; rabble; rout (a disorderly crowd of people)

phalanx (any closely ranked crowd of people)

flock; troop (an orderly crowd)

Derivation:

crowd (to gather together in large numbers)

crowd (cause to herd, drive, or crowd together)

crowd (fill or occupy to the point of overflowing)

Sense 2

Meaning:

An informal body of friends

Example:

he still hangs out with the same crowd

Synonyms:

bunch; crew; crowd; gang

Classified under:

Nouns denoting groupings of people or objects

Hypernyms ("crowd" is a kind of...):

assemblage; gathering (a group of persons together in one place)

 II. (verb) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

To gather together in large numbers

Example:

men in straw boaters and waxed mustaches crowded the verandah

Synonyms:

crowd; crowd together

Classified under:

Verbs of walking, flying, swimming

Hypernyms (to "crowd" is one way to...):

assemble; foregather; forgather; gather; meet (collect in one place)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "crowd"):

mass (join together into a mass or collect or form a mass)

overcrowd (crowd together too much)

pour; pullulate; stream; swarm; teem (move in large numbers)

herd (move together, like a herd)

jam; mob; pack; pile; throng (press tightly together or cram)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s
Somebody ----s PP

Derivation:

crowd (a large number of things or people considered together)

crowding (a situation in which people or things are crowded together)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Cause to herd, drive, or crowd together

Example:

We herded the children into a spare classroom

Synonyms:

crowd; herd

Classified under:

Verbs of walking, flying, swimming

Hypernyms (to "crowd" is one way to...):

displace; move (cause to move or shift into a new position or place, both in a concrete and in an abstract sense)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "crowd"):

overcrowd (cause to crowd together too much)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Somebody ----s somebody
Somebody ----s somebody PP
Somebody ----s something PP

Derivation:

crowd (a large number of things or people considered together)

crowding (a situation in which people or things are crowded together)

Sense 3

Meaning:

Approach a certain age or speed

Example:

She is pushing fifty

Synonyms:

crowd; push

Classified under:

Verbs of walking, flying, swimming

Hypernyms (to "crowd" is one way to...):

approach; come near; come on; draw close; draw near; go up; near (move towards)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something

Sense 4

Meaning:

Fill or occupy to the point of overflowing

Example:

The students crowded the auditorium

Classified under:

Verbs of being, having, spatial relations

Hypernyms (to "crowd" is one way to...):

fill; occupy (occupy the whole of)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Something ----s something

Sentence example:

The crowds crowd in the streets

Derivation:

crowd (a large number of things or people considered together)

crowding (a situation in which people or things are crowded together)

Credits

 Context examples: 

Said Mr. Morris:—I have brought some Winchesters; they are pretty handy in a crowd, and there may be wolves.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

This over, he came out of his angle and the pack crowded around him, sniffing in half-friendly, half-savage manner.

(The Call of the Wild, by Jack London)

There was a good crowd round the booking-office, so I got quite close to them without being seen.

(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

As we drove up, we found the railings in front of the house lined by a curious crowd.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

The area is crowded with low-energy X-ray sources, but their emission is very faint when you examine it at the energies that NuSTAR observes, so the new signal stands out.

(NASA's NuSTAR Captures Possible 'Screams' from Zombie Stars, NASA)

The winged offspring can then fly to and colonize new, less crowded plants.

(Virus genes help determine if pea aphids get wings, National Science Foundation)

They crowded in upon him, while he, ignorant of their language, could but clutch the girl with one hand and the parcel with the other, looking wildly about in search of help.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

“Young man, you’ll know enough of who you ’ave to fight before you are through with it,” cried Berks, lurching heavily through the crowd.

(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Amid the crowded millions of London the three persons we sought were as completely obliterated as if they had never lived.

(His Last Bow, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

A high grade intraepithelial neoplasia in which there is marked architectural distortion and crowding of the glands, associated with severe cellular atypia.

(Grade III Glandular Intraepithelial Neoplasia, NCI Thesaurus)