crowd Meaning, Definition & Usage

  1. noun a large number of things or people considered together
    • a crowd of insects assembled around the flowers
  2. noun an informal body of friends
    bunch; gang; crew.
    • he still hangs out with the same crowd
  3. verb cause to herd, drive, or crowd together
    herd.
    • We herded the children into a spare classroom
  4. verb fill or occupy to the point of overflowing
    • The students crowded the auditorium
  5. verb to gather together in large numbers
    crowd together.
    • men in straw boaters and waxed mustaches crowded the verandah
  6. verb approach a certain age or speed
    push.
    • She is pushing fifty

WordNet

Crowd transitive verb
Etymology
OE. crouden, cruden, AS. crdan; cf. D. kruijen to push in a wheelbarrow.
Wordforms
imperfect & past participle Crowded; present participle & verbal noun Crowding
Definitions
  1. To push, to press, to shove. Chaucer.
  2. To press or drive together; to mass together. "Crowd us and crush us." Shak.
  3. To fill by pressing or thronging together; hence, to encumber by excess of numbers or quantity.
    The balconies and verandas were crowded with spectators, anxious to behold their future sovereign. Prescott.
  4. To press by solicitation; to urge; to dun; hence, to treat discourteously or unreasonably. Colloq.
Crowd intransitive verb
Definitions
  1. To press together or collect in numbers; to swarm; to throng.
    The whole company crowded about the fire. Addison.
    Images came crowding on his mind faster than he could put them into words. Macaulay.
  2. To urge or press forward; to force one's self; as, a man crowds into a room.
Crowd noun
Etymology
AS. croda. See Crowd, v. t.
Definitions
  1. A number of things collected or closely pressed together; also, a number of things adjacent to each other.
    A crowd of islands. Pope.
  2. A number of persons congregated or collected into a close body without order; a throng.
    The crowd of Vanity Fair. Macualay.
    Crowds that stream from yawning doors. {\*\bkmkstart here}Tennyson.
  3. The lower orders of people; the populace; the vulgar; the rabble; the mob.
    To fool the crowd with glorious lies. Tennyson.
    He went not with the crowd to see a shrine. Dryden.
    Syn. -- Throng; multitude. See Throng.
Crowd noun
Etymology
W. crwth; akin to Gael. cruit. Perh. named from its shape, and akin to Gr. curved, and E. curve. Cf. Rote.
Definitions
  1. An ancient instrument of music with six strings; a kind of violin, being the oldest known stringed instrument played with a bow. Written also croud, crowth, cruth, and crwth.
    A lackey that . . . can warble upon a crowd a little. B. Jonson.
Crowd transitive verb
Definitions
  1. To play on a crowd; to fiddle. Obs. "Fiddlers, crowd on." Massinger.

Webster 1913