Library / English Dictionary

ABOUND

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 I. (verb) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Be abundant or plentiful; exist in large quantities

Classified under:

Verbs of being, having, spatial relations

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

be (have the quality of being; (copula, used with an adjective or a predicate noun))

Sentence frames:

Something ----s
Something is ----ing PP

Also:

abound in (exist in large quantity)

Derivation:

abundance (the property of a more than adequate quantity or supply)

abundant (present in great quantity)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Be in a state of movement or action

Example:

The garden bristled with toddlers

Synonyms:

abound; bristle; burst

Classified under:

Verbs of being, having, spatial relations

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

feature; have (have as a feature)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something

Sentence examples:

The crowds abound in the streets

The streets abound with crowds

Credits

 Context examples: 

When it's fine, and we go out for a walk in the evening, the streets abound in enjoyment for us.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

Their verses abound very much in both of these, and usually contain either some exalted notions of friendship and benevolence or the praises of those who were victors in races and other bodily exercises.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

Here they inquire into the state and condition of the several districts; whether they abound or be deficient in hay or oats, or cows, or Yahoos; and wherever there is any want (which is but seldom) it is immediately supplied by unanimous consent and contribution.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

The wise and virtuous Houyhnhnms, who abound in all excellences that can adorn a rational creature, have no name for this vice in their language, which has no terms to express any thing that is evil, except those whereby they describe the detestable qualities of their Yahoos, among which they were not able to distinguish this of pride, for want of thoroughly understanding human nature, as it shows itself in other countries where that animal presides.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

My master further assured me, which I also observed myself, that in the fields where the shining stones abound, the fiercest and most frequent battles are fought, occasioned by perpetual inroads of the neighbouring Yahoos.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

I could plainly discover whence one family derives a long chin; why a second has abounded with knaves for two generations, and fools for two more; why a third happened to be crack-brained, and a fourth to be sharpers; whence it came, what Polydore Virgil says of a certain great house, Nec vir fortis, nec foemina casta; how cruelty, falsehood, and cowardice, grew to be characteristics by which certain families are distinguished as much as by their coats of arms; who first brought the pox into a noble house, which has lineally descended scrofulous tumours to their posterity.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

I applied myself to the king, and assured his majesty, that I came from a country which abounded with several millions of both sexes, and of my own stature; where the animals, trees, and houses, were all in proportion, and where, by consequence, I might be as able to defend myself, and to find sustenance, as any of his majesty’s subjects could do here; which I took for a full answer to those gentlemen’s arguments.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

I desired you would let me know, by a letter, when party and faction were extinguished; judges learned and upright; pleaders honest and modest, with some tincture of common sense, and Smithfield blazing with pyramids of law books; the young nobility’s education entirely changed; the physicians banished; the female Yahoos abounding in virtue, honour, truth, and good sense; courts and levees of great ministers thoroughly weeded and swept; wit, merit, and learning rewarded; all disgracers of the press in prose and verse condemned to eat nothing but their own cotton, and quench their thirst with their own ink.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

But the large rivers are full of vessels, and abound with excellent fish; for they seldom get any from the sea, because the sea fish are of the same size with those in Europe, and consequently not worth catching; whereby it is manifest, that nature, in the production of plants and animals of so extraordinary a bulk, is wholly confined to this continent, of which I leave the reasons to be determined by philosophers.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

My answer was, that we were overstocked with books of travels: that nothing could now pass which was not extraordinary; wherein I doubted some authors less consulted truth, than their own vanity, or interest, or the diversion of ignorant readers; that my story could contain little beside common events, without those ornamental descriptions of strange plants, trees, birds, and other animals; or of the barbarous customs and idolatry of savage people, with which most writers abound.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)