crowd
    n 1: a large number of things or people considered together; "a
         crowd of insects assembled around the flowers"
    2: an informal body of friends; "he still hangs out with the
       same crowd" [syn: crowd, crew, gang, bunch]
    v 1: cause to herd, drive, or crowd together; "We herded the
         children into a spare classroom" [syn: herd, crowd]
    2: fill or occupy to the point of overflowing; "The students
       crowded the auditorium"
    3: to gather together in large numbers; "men in straw boaters
       and waxed mustaches crowded the verandah" [syn: crowd,
       crowd together]
    4: approach a certain age or speed; "She is pushing fifty" [syn:
       push, crowd]

Crowd \Crowd\, v. t.
   To play on a crowd; to fiddle. [Obs.] "Fiddlers, crowd on."
   --Massinger.
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Crowd \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.]
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         A lackey that . . . can warble upon a crowd a little.
                                                  --B. Jonson.
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Crowd \Crowd\, v. i.
   1. To press together or collect in numbers; to swarm; to
      throng.
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            The whole company crowded about the fire. --Addison.
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            Images came crowding on his mind faster than he
            could put them into words.            --Macaulay.
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   2. To urge or press forward; to force one's self; as, a man
      crowds into a room.
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Crowd \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.
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            A crowd of islands.                   --Pope.
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   2. A number of persons congregated or collected into a close
      body without order; a throng.
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            The crowd of Vanity Fair.             --Macaulay.
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            Crowds that stream from yawning doors. --Tennyson.
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   3. The lower orders of people; the populace; the vulgar; the
      rabble; the mob.
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            To fool the crowd with glorious lies. --Tennyson.
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            He went not with the crowd to see a shrine.
                                                  --Dryden.

   Syn: Throng; multitude. See Throng.
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Crowd \Crowd\ (kroud), v. t. [imp. & p. p. Crowded; p. pr. &
   vb. n. Crowding.] [OE. crouden, cruden, AS. cr[=u]dan; cf.
   D. kruijen to push in a wheelbarrow.]
   1. To push, to press, to shove. --Chaucer.
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   2. To press or drive together; to mass together. "Crowd us
      and crush us." --Shak.
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   3. To fill by pressing or thronging together; hence, to
      encumber by excess of numbers or quantity.
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            The balconies and verandas were crowded with
            spectators, anxious to behold their future
            sovereign.                            --Prescott.
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   4. To press by solicitation; to urge; to dun; hence, to treat
      discourteously or unreasonably. [Colloq.]
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   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.
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