congregate
/ˈkɒŋɡrɪɡeɪt
/verb [no object]
Gather into a crowd or mass: some 4,000 demonstrators had congregated at a border point...
- He said the rank at the moment has to deal with too many taxis and has become a hot-spot for trouble because of crowds congregating there at night.
- The crowd had congregated in the street during the evening and had been drinking outside due to the warm weather.
- Their trial had the people of south Wales holding their breath, with a 5,000 strong crowd congregating outside the court on the first day.
Synonyms
assemble, gather, collect, come together, flock together, get together, convene, rally, rendezvous, muster, meet, amass, crowd, cluster, throng, group
rare foregather
Origin
Late Middle English: from Latin congregat- 'collected (into a flock), united', from the verb congregare, from con- 'together' + gregare (from grex, greg- 'a flock').
The Latin word for a herd or flock was grex, giving congregare, meaning ‘to collect into a herd or flock, to unite’. Gregarious (mid 17th century), meaning ‘fond of company’, is also descended from grex, as are aggregate (Late Middle English) ‘herd together’; egregious (mid 16th century) ‘standing out from the herd’ and originally complimentary; and segregation (mid 16th century) ‘set apart from the herd’.