crowd

Pluralcrowds

Formscrowds, crowding, crowded

1. 1
   people gatherednouncountable

   A group of people gathered together into a close, disorganized mass.

   A crowd gathered outside the courthouse to await the verdict.

   Police struggled to control the crowd as the concert let out.

   UsageUsually a crowd of people or fans; you stand in a crowd and push through it.

   Similarthrong, mob, horde, multitude, mass

2. 2
   pack a placeverbtransitive

   To fill a space by pressing or thronging together within it.

   Shoppers crowd the markets in the days before the holiday.

   Pilgrims crowded the temple courtyard at dawn.

   UsageThe place is the object: shoppers crowd the markets. In the passive, a place is crowded with people.

   Similarthrong, pack, fill, jam, swarm

   Oppositevacate

   Note

   Prescott's History of the Reign of Philip the Second has balconies crowded with spectators, so the people become the means of filling rather than the subject.

3. 3
   type of peoplenouncountable

   A set of people united by, or sharing, a common interest.

   The festival draws an artsy crowd from across the country.

   He fell in with a rough crowd after moving to the city.

   UsageOften after a describing word: the sports crowd, a rough crowd; people fall in with or hang out with a crowd.

   Similarset, group, circle, bunch, crew

4. 4
   verbintransitive

   To gather or press closely together in large numbers, moving into, toward, or around a place as a mass.

   Commuters crowd onto the platform every morning.

   Spectators crowded along the route to watch the runners pass.

   UsageUsually followed by a place word: crowd onto the platform, crowd around the stage, crowd into a room.

   Note

   Here the pushing turns into gathering: many people move toward one place and end up packed together. Macaulay, writing on Bunyan for the Encyclopædia Britannica, carries it into the mind, where images came crowding on his mind faster than he could put them into words.

5. 5
   verbtransitive

   To press or drive people or things together, especially into a small space.

   Workers crowd the spare equipment into a single storage unit each night.

   The host crowded the extra guests into the back room.

   UsageUsually crowd people or things into a small space.

   Similarcram, pack, squeeze, jam, herd

6. 6
   nouncountable

   A number of things collected or pressed closely together, or set next to one another.

   A crowd of old machines filled the corner of the workshop.

   Through the telescope, a dense crowd of stars came into view.

   Similarcluster, mass, host, jumble

7. 7
   common peoplenounwith the

   The common people regarded as the lower orders of society; the masses.

   Proud of his learning, the old lord scorned the tastes of the crowd and spoke only to men of his own rank.

   Politicians flatter the crowd in public while scorning it in private.

   UsageSaid as the crowd, and it usually sounds scornful: it looks down on ordinary people as common or low.

   Similarmasses, populace, mob, rabble, herd

   Oppositeelite, aristocracy

   Note

   Dryden's good parson, in 1700, does not go with the Crowd to see a shrine, and Tennyson's In Memoriam (1850) speaks of fooling the crowd with glorious lies.

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