stampede
/stamˈpiːd
/noun
1A sudden panicked rush of a number of horses, cattle, or other animals: the herd was fleeing back to the high land in a wild stampede...
- What sounded like a stampede of wild rhinoceroses roused her from her sleep.
- And artists have portrayed wild-game hunts in Africa, as well as Indian buffalo leaps in America when men have deliberately caused animal stampedes.
- A farmer has slammed joyriders who chased his cattle into a stampede, driving one to its death.
Synonyms
charge, panic, rush, flight, rout, scattering
1.1A sudden rapid movement or reaction of a mass of people in response to a particular circumstance or stimulus: a stampede of bargain hunters...
- So popular he is that people, young and old, rush in a stampede to collect a baseball hat bearing his name and signatures of his trainer and jockey.
- Their release created a stampede of users to Windows Update, resulting in slow response times yesterday.
- Flames quickly surrounded hundreds of revellers packed inside the tiny dance club, triggering a stampede to escape, fire officials said.
1.2 [often in names] (In North America) a rodeo: the Calgary Stampede...
- Only the top 10 cowboys and cowgirls in each event survive the Wrangler ProRodeo Tour and the Ariat Playoffs to compete at the 8th annual Texas Stampede and the Wrangler ProRodeo Tour Championship.
- For 20 years, "those girls on horses" have entertained crowds at the Greeley Stampede.
verb [no object]
1(Of horses, cattle, or other animals) rush wildly in a sudden mass panic: the nearby sheep stampeded as if they sensed impending danger...
- Suddenly, from nowhere, a rumble starts and he hauls himself into a tree, clinging on as, beneath him, a herd of cattle stampedes across his bedding.
- Once, I found a hole in a fence and sent a herd of sheep stampeding for cover.
- The Red Cross says most of the injuries were caused by the bulls stampeding.
Synonyms
bolt, charge, rush, flee, take flight, dash, race, career, sweep, run
1.1 [no object, with adverbial of direction] (Of people) move rapidly in a mass: the children stampeded through the kitchen, playing tag or hide-and-seek...
- The try sent the Bulls fans stampeding for the exits.
- Survivors and Argentine officials say a flare sparked the blaze that sent thousands of people stampeding for the exits.
- Everyone stampeded out of the classroom before Mr. Humphries could give them their English homework.
1.2 [with object] Cause (people or animals) to stampede: the raiders stampeded 200 mules figurative don’t let them stampede us into anything...
- Early in the battle, the advancing Sioux stampeded their horses.
- I think dogs have been in and stampeded them and not let up until they were in the water.
- Once they tried to drive a herd of several hundred ponies through the line to disrupt and stampede the pack animals, but the attempt failed.
Derivatives
stampeder
- Aboard the boat are the cast, now transformed into characters loosely based on actual stampeders.
- It took two years for word to get around and for the stampeders, or cheekakos, to come flooding into the area in what was not the largest, but the last and undeniably the most exasperating, of the great gold rushes.
- Low Dog and Black Fox led the 25 Oglala lodges, all drawn from the Oyuhpe band stampeders who fled Red Cloud Agency immediately after Crazy Horse's death.
Origin
Early 19th century: Mexican Spanish use of Spanish estampida 'crash, uproar', of Germanic origin; related to the verb stamp.