# crowd

Pronunciation: say "KROWD" /kɹaʊd/

## Noun

1. A group of people gathered together into a close, disorganized mass.
   - Simple: A large number of people gathered together close to one another.
   - _A crowd gathered outside the courthouse to await the verdict._
   - _Police struggled to control the crowd as the concert let out._
3. A set of people united by, or sharing, a common interest.
   - Simple: A set of people who share the same interest or hobby.
   - _The festival draws an artsy crowd from across the country._
   - _He fell in with a rough crowd after moving to the city._
6. A number of things collected or pressed closely together, or set next to one another.
   - Simple: A bunch of things pressed or placed close together.
   - _A crowd of old machines filled the corner of the workshop._
   - _Through the telescope, a dense crowd of stars came into view._
7. The common people regarded as the lower orders of society; the masses.
   - Simple: Ordinary people thought of as common or low in rank.
   - _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._

## Verb

2. To fill a space by pressing or thronging together within it.
   - Simple: To fill a place by packing tightly into it.
   - _Shoppers crowd the markets in the days before the holiday._
   - _Pilgrims crowded the temple courtyard at dawn._
4. To gather or press closely together in large numbers, moving into, toward, or around a place as a mass.
   - Simple: To move or come together in a large group, pressing close to each other.
   - _Commuters crowd onto the platform every morning._
   - _Spectators crowded along the route to watch the runners pass._
5. To press or drive people or things together, especially into a small space.
   - Simple: To push people or things tightly 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._
8. To push, press, or shove someone or something, or to press close around a person so that they have little room.
   - Simple: To push someone or something, or to stand so close to someone that they have little room.
   - _Defenders crowd the striker the moment he touches the ball._
   - _The guards crowded the reporters away from the doorway._
9. To press someone with repeated demands, especially for payment, and so to treat them harshly.
   - Simple: To keep pushing someone to do something or to pay you back.
   - _The new landlord began to crowd his tenants for the back rent, sending letters and knocking on their doors every week._
   - _The collector crowded the widow over her husband's old debts._

## Verb

10. To play upon a fiddle; to fiddle. *(obsolete)*
   - Simple: To play music on a fiddle.

## Other meanings

- (verb) To approach another vessel too closely when that vessel has right of way.
- (verb) To carry an unusually large amount of sail on a vessel to increase its speed.
- (noun) A bowed stringed instrument; a fiddle.

## Origin

**Meanings 1–9** — From Middle English crouden, from Old English crūdan, going back through Proto-Germanic to a Proto-Indo-European root *grewt- meaning 'to push or press'. It is related to Dutch kruien and Low German kroden, both meaning 'to push or shove'.
**Meaning 10** — From Middle English crowde, borrowed from Welsh crwth or a related Celtic word.

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/crowd (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).