crowd
Language: English
Part of speech: verb
Pronunciation: ipa: /kɹaʊd/
rhymes: -aʊd
Forms: form: crowds
form: crowding
form: crowded
form: crowded
Etymology: 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”).
Senses: examples: text: The man crowded into the packed room.
synonyms: barge
glosses: To press forward; to advance by pushing.
examples: text: They crowded through the archway and into the park.
text: [T]he whole company closed their ranks, and crowded about the fire.
ref: 1711 March 25 (Gregorian calendar), [Joseph Addison; Richard Steele et al.], “WEDNESDAY, March 14, 1710–1711”, in The Spectator, number 12; republished in Alexander Chalmers, editor, The Spectator; a New Edition, […], volume I, New York, N.Y.: D[aniel] Appleton & Company, 1853, →OCLC, page 141:
text: Images came crowding on his mind faster than he could put them into words.
ref: 1911, Thomas Babington Macaulay, “Bunyan, John”, in 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica:
synonyms: swarm
throng
crowd in
crush
pile
horde
glosses: To press together or collect in numbers.
examples: text: He tried to crowd too many cows into the cow-pen.
text: […]The Time (miſ-order’d) doth in common ſence / Crowd vs, and cruſh vs, to this monſtrous Forme, / To hold our ſafetie vp.
ref: c. 1596–1599 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Second Part of Henry the Fourth, […]. Epilogue.”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene ii], page 91, column 1:
glosses: To press or drive together, especially into a small space; to cram.
examples: text: The balconies and verandas were crowded with spectators, anxious to behold their future sovereign.
ref: 1875, William Hickling Prescott, History of the Reign of Philip the Second, King of Spain:
glosses: To fill by pressing or thronging together
examples: text: They tried to crowd her off the sidewalk.
text: Alexis's mementos and numerous dance trophies were starting to crowd her out of her little bedroom.
ref: 2006, Lanna Nakone, Every Child Has a Thinking Style, →ISBN, page 73:
glosses: To push, to press, to shove.
raw_tags: used with "out of" or "off"
topics: nautical
transport
glosses: To approach another ship too closely when it has right of way.
examples: text: 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!
ref: 1851 November 14, Herman Melville, “The Lee Shore”, in Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers; London: Richard Bentley, →OCLC, page 118:
topics: nautical
transport
glosses: To carry excessive sail in the hope of moving faster.
raw_tags: of a square-rigged ship
glosses: To press by solicitation; to urge; to dun; hence, to treat discourteously or unreasonably.
Synonyms: word: becrowd
Derived terms: crowder
crowdingly
crowd in on
crowd out
crowd together
crowd up
outcrowd
overcrowd
undercrowd