I.
intransitive verb
1.
a.
< crowd on one's way >
< the ships crowded northward >
b.
< darkness of evening crowded in >
< his heart crowded up into his breast — Pearl S. Buck >
c.
< the players crowded around the coach >
< new cheap labor crowding on the heels of earlier comers — American Guide Series: Minnesota >
2.
< memories crowd in from every stage of the journey — Barbara Ward >
< policemen warning people not to crowd >
transitive verb
1.
< crowd a person's patience with solicitations >
< a person crowded to death with titles and honors >
2.
a.
< crowd a bus with children >
< 10,000 spectators crowding a stadium >
< his mind was crowded with the detail he observed — Nevil Shute >
b.
< crowd children into a bus >
< the same wish to crowd meaning is responsible for a good many slurred references — John Berryman >
< a multitude of things were crowded together >
3. obsolete
4.
< crowd a person off the sidewalk >
< we have allowed a false creed to crowd out the real American tradition — Bradford Smith >
5.
a.
< we crowded the motor to ten knots — Clifford Gessler >
< I crowded him until streams of sweat ran — J.H.Stuart >
b.
(1)
(2)
< the engineer crowds steam in the cylinders — Frederick Way >
— often used with on
< crowd on speed >
6.
< I'd never crowded him with questions — J.B.Benefield >
7.
< changes … crowd each other in a whirl of confusing images — N.M.Butler >
8.
a.
< one car crowding the car in front >
< crowding thirty and still not married >
b.
c.
9.
< crowding his luck for all it was worth — F.B.Gipson >
Synonyms: see pack, press
II.
1.
a.
< a crowd of little children >
b.
2.
< no man more hated and feared by the crowd, the generality of mankind — Edith Sitwell >
< all our ideas are crowd ideas — T.H.Ferril >
3.
< crowds of fine silver dust — G.H.Johnston >
< an exciting crowd of incidents — H.C.Webster >
< a crowd of wasps, hornets, flies, and gnats — Ellen Glasgow >
4.
< the cocktail crowd >
< the Hollywood crowd >
< I don't like him or his crowd >
< in with the wrong crowd >
5.
a.
b.
Synonyms:
< the crowd came pouring out with a vehemence that nearly took him off his legs — Charles Dickens >
< we get the real sense of a crowd of human beings, animated, as a crowd, by an instinct and a genius different from that of any of its particular members — Laurence Binyon >
throng is closely synonymous with crowd; occasionally it may suggest surging motion or bustling confusion
< summer tourists come to join the shopping throngs on summer evenings — American Guide Series: New Hampshire >
< sailors hung from yards and bowsprits to shout the names of vessels to the bewildered, harried throng — Kenneth Roberts >
press, not now used so much as formerly, may suggest compact concentration in which movement is difficult
< they could not come nigh unto him for the press — Mk 2:4 (Authorized Version) >
crush more strongly stresses compact concentration and difficulty of passage through; it is rarely used without connotation of discomfort
< the crush was terrific for that time of day … for the street was blocked — Virginia Woolf >
< a crush of dancing couples packed the floor — Hamilton Basso >
mob, usually derogatory, is likely to indicate a rough crowd composed of lower elements, often one disposed to disorder, riot, or other antisocial action and one abrogating any finer feeling
< Oliver was burned in effigy, and Hutchinson's town house was gutted by the mob — C.L.Becker >
< the mob, loudly as they clamored for their own rights, cared nothing for the rights of others — J.A.Froude >
rout is sometimes a close synonym of mob; it may suggest a concentration of hectic or disorderly activity in a circumscribed space
< the busy rout of the street could be seen. He loved the changing panorama of the street — Theodore Dreiser >
< a kind of jollity and recklessness which was born in the fort, at the old routs and balls — Bruce Hutchison >
< a flying rout of suns and galaxies, rushing away from the solar system and from one another — E.M.Forster >
horde may apply to a large surging mass or crowd of rough or savage individuals disposed to predatory or destructive action
< hordes of desperadoes and gunmen who found the river at this point a convenient crossing — American Guide Series: Texas >
< hordes of sturdy rogues and vagrants — G.E.Fussell >
< a horde of heavily armed buffoons in big boots went stamping round my decks for hours, poking their great stupid faces into everything — Times Literary Supplement >
III.
1.
2. dialect England
[IV.
dialect England