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crowd

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crowd¹

  • /ˈkɹaʊ̯d/ US, UK
  • [ˈkʰɹʷaʊ̯d] US, UK
  • /ˈkɹæʊ̯d/
  • [ˈkʰɹʷæʊ̯d]
  • /ˈkɹaːd/
  • [ˈkʰɹʷaːd]

Rhymes with -aʊd

Where it comes from

Etymology tree

Proto-Indo-European *grewt-der.

Proto-Germanic *krūdaną

Proto-West Germanic *krūdan

Old English crūdan

Middle English crouden

English crowd

From Middle English crouden, from Old English crūdan, from Proto-West Germanic *krūdan, from Proto-Germanic *krūdaną, *kreudaną, ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *grewt- (“to push; press”). Cognate with German Low German kroden (“to push, shove”), Dutch kruien (“to push, shove”).

(group of people, mob): Compare typologically throng (<<~ Proto-Germanic *þrinhwaną); Czech dav (akin to Russian дави́ть (davítʹ), да́вка (dávka)); Polish ciżba, ścisk (<~ ciskać, akin to ти́скать (tískatʹ)); Polish tłok, Russian толчея́ (tolčejá) (akin to толка́ть (tolkátʹ)).

verb crowds · crowding · crowded

  1. intransitive To press forward; to advance by pushing. The man crowded into the packed room.
  2. intransitive To press together or collect in numbers. They crowded through the archway and into the park.
  3. transitive To press or drive together, especially into a small space; to cram. He tried to crowd too many cows into the cow-pen.
  4. transitive To fill by pressing or thronging together The balconies and verandas were crowded with spectators, anxious to behold their future sovereign.
  5. often, transitive To push, to press, to shove. They tried to crowd her off the sidewalk.
  6. To approach another ship too closely when it has right of way.
  7. transitive To carry excessive sail in the hope of moving faster. With all her might she crowds all sail off shore; in so doing, fights ’gainst the very winds that fain would blow her homeward; seeks all the lashed sea’s landlessness again; for refuge’s sake forlornly rushing into peril; her only friend her bitterest foe!
  8. transitive To press by solicitation; to urge; to dun; hence, to treat discourteously or unreasonably.

Similar: becrowd

noun crowds

  1. A group of people congregated or collected into a close body without order. After the movie let out, a crowd of people pushed through the exit doors.
  2. Several things collected or closely pressed together; also, some things adjacent to each other. There was a crowd of toys pushed beneath the couch where the children were playing.
  3. with definite article The so-called lower orders of people; the populace; the vulgar. He went not, with the Crowd, to ſee a Shrine;
  4. A group of people united or at least characterised by a common interest. That obscure author's fans were a nerdy crowd which hardly ever interacted before the Internet age.

Similar: assemblage, congregation, crowd, flock, huddle, legion, press, slew, audience, group, multitude, public

crowd²

  • /ˈkɹaʊ̯d/ US, UK
  • [ˈkʰɹʷaʊ̯d] US, UK
  • /ˈkɹæʊ̯d/
  • [ˈkʰɹʷæʊ̯d]
  • /ˈkɹaːd/
  • [ˈkʰɹʷaːd]

Rhymes with -aʊd

Where it comes from

Inherited from Middle English crowde, from Welsh crwth or a Celtic cognate.

noun crowds

  1. alternative, obsolete Alternative form of crwth.crwth A lackey that […] can warble upon a crowd a little.
  2. dialectal A fiddle. That keep their Consciences in Cases, / As Fiddlers do their Crowds and Bases,[…]

Similar: assemblage, congregation, crowd, flock, huddle, legion, press, slew, horde, mass, multitude, throng

verb crowds · crowding · crowded

  1. intransitive, obsolete To play on a crowd; to fiddle. Fiddlers, crowd on, crowd on.

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