team

Less common meanings

4. 4
   draft animalsnouncountable

   A set of draft animals, such as two horses harnessed in front of a carriage.

   Two teams of horses were needed to haul the loaded wagon uphill.

   The driver guided his team of mules along the mountain road.

   Similarspan, yoke

   Note

   An ancient sense, and one the word's history explains. Old English tēam meant offspring or brood as well as a set of draft animals, and the reconstructed Germanic root behind it meant "that which draws or pulls." Macaulay's stuck coaches wait for "a team of cattle," and Faulkner's wagons stand with "the teams reversed": here the word names the animals, not the vehicle. Source

   Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 5 facts

   • Old English tēam meant offspring or brood and a set of draft animals. en.wiktionary.org
   • The Germanic ancestor is glossed as “that which draws or pulls.” en.wiktionary.org
   • Macaulay describes stuck coaches awaiting “a team of cattle.” gutenberg.org
   • Faulkner describes wagons with “the teams reversed,” meaning the animals. fadedpage.com
   • It denotes the animals in these passages, but an American sense includes both horses and vehicle. en.wikisource.org
5. 5
   go well withverbintransitive

   To go together well; to combine harmoniously.

   Rich spices team wonderfully with slow-cooked meat.

   Her bold prints teamed surprisingly well with muted tones.

   UsageTakes with, usually with an adverb between: teams well with, teams nicely with.

   Similarpair, combine, match, go (entry)

   Oppositeclash

   Note

   A figurative extension of harnessing draft animals together, and at home in food writing. Jill Dupleix's Good Cooking (2005) says a salad "teams well with grilled salmon, tuna, or mackerel." Pair is the close synonym, while harmonize sounds grander.

6. 6
   interjectioncolloquial

   A shout proposing that another player join forces with the speaker in a game.

   Team? We can clear this dungeon faster if we join forces.

   Spotting a stronger opponent, she quickly signaled, "Team!"

   Note

   A gamer's one-word offer of alliance, shortened from team up and called or typed to another player mid-game. Its force is a proposal rather than a statement, so it is voiced as a question or an exclamation.

7. 7
   nounobsolete

   A brood or company of animals traveling together, especially a family of ducklings.

   a long team of snowy swans on high

   1697, Virgil, “Aeneis”

   she will wonder to have a teeme of ducklings about her

   1601, Pliny the Elder, The Historie of the World

   Note

   An obsolete collective for creatures on the move. It keeps the "brood" meaning told at the draft-animal sense. Pliny the Elder, put into English in 1601, has a hen surprised "to have a teeme of ducklings about her." Dryden's Virgil of 1697 sets "a long team of snowy swans" in the sky. Source

   Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 5 facts

   • The animal collective preserves the historical brood meaning of team, which also developed the draft-animal sense. en.wiktionary.org
   • Pliny the Elder's Natural History appeared in Philemon Holland's English translation in 1601. penelope.uchicago.edu
   • Holland's translation describes a hen surprised to have ducklings around her and contains the exact quoted phrase. penelope.uchicago.edu
   • Dryden's translation of Virgil was first published in 1697. uflib.ufl.edu
   • Dryden's translation includes the quoted words and places the swans in the sky. gutenberg.org
8. 8
   lord's rightnounobsoleteUK

   In Anglo-Saxon and Anglo-Norman law, a right granted to a landowner, usually paired with toll, to hold a court judging claims that goods or cattle were wrongfully possessed.

   Note

   A term from Anglo-Saxon and Anglo-Norman charters, nearly always paired as toll and team. The Old English word suggests a chain of ownership: the court tested whether someone holding goods could trace them back to a lawful source. By the 1100s the court had faded, and later legal writers guessed at other meanings, including power over a lord's bondmen and their children. Source

   Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 5 facts

   • The term occurs in Anglo-Saxon and Anglo-Norman charters. asnc.cam.ac.uk
   • Team was nearly always paired with toll in historical legal texts. en.wiktionary.org
   • The Old English term referred to tracing ownership; the jurisdiction concerned wrongful possession of goods or cattle. en.wikipedia.org
   • The institution had become obsolete by the twelfth century. en.wikipedia.org
   • Later legal accounts interpreted team as jurisdiction over a lord's bondmen and their offspring. gutenberg.org
9. 9
   verbdated

   To carry or haul something using a team of draft animals.

   the farmer has been all winter teaming wood along the river

   1857, Henry David Thoreau journal entry for Feb. 4 1857
10. 10
    verbobsolete

    To assign work to a gang of laborers working under a subcontractor.