Crowd (kroud), v. t. [imp.
& p. p. Crowded; p. pr. & vb.
n. Crowding.] [OE. crouden,
cruden, AS. cr&?;dan; cf. D. kruijen to
push in a wheelbarrow.] 1. To push, to
press, to shove. Chaucer.
2. To press or drive together; to mass
together. "Crowd us and crush us." Shak.
3. To fill by pressing or thronging
together; hence, to encumber by excess of numbers or
quantity.
The balconies and verandas were crowded
with spectators, anxious to behold their future sovereign.
Prescott.
4. To press by solicitation; to urge; to
dun; hence, to treat discourteously or unreasonably.
[Colloq.]
To crowd out, to press out;
specifically, to prevent the publication of; as, the press of
other matter crowded out the article. -- To
crowd sail (Naut.), to carry an
extraordinary amount of sail, with a view to accelerate the speed
of a vessel; to carry a press of sail.
Crowd, v. i. 1.
To press together or collect in numbers; to swarm; to
throng.
The whole company crowded about the
fire.
Addison.
Images came crowding on his mind faster
than he could put them into words.
Macaulay.
2. To urge or press forward; to force
one's self; as, a man crowds into a room.
Crowd, n. [AS. croda. See
Crowd, v. t. ] 1. A
number of things collected or closely pressed together; also, a
number of things adjacent to each other.
A crowd of islands.
Pope.
2. A number of persons congregated or
collected into a close body without order; a throng.
The crowd of Vanity Fair.
Macaulay.
Crowds that stream from yawning doors.
Tennyson.
3. The lower orders of people; the
populace; the vulgar; the rabble; the mob.
To fool the crowd with glorious lies.
Tennyson.
He went not with the crowd to see a
shrine.
Dryden.
Syn. -- Throng; multitude. See Throng.
Crowd, n. [W. crwth; akin to
Gael. cruit. Perh. named from its shape, and akin to Gr.
kyrto`s curved, and E. curve. Cf.
Rote.] An ancient instrument of music with six
strings; a kind of violin, being the oldest known stringed
instrument played with a bow. [Written also croud,
crowth, cruth, and crwth.]
A lackey that . . . can warble upon a crowd
a little.
B. Jonson.
Crowd, v. t. To play on a
crowd; to fiddle. [Obs.] "Fiddlers, crowd on."
Massinger.
