crush emphasizes the compactness of the group, the difficulty of individual movement, and the attendant discomfort.
a crush of fans
mob implies a disorderly crowd with the potential for violence.
an angry mob
Examples of crowd in a Sentence
Verb
Boxes crowded the floor of my apartment.
There are too many products crowding the market.
The club has been accused of crowding too many people into too small a space.
By the end of the 10th mile, three bicyclists were crowding the racer in front.
Please move back. You're crowding me. Noun (1)
a huge crowd of fans was on hand to greet the returning World Series champions
the fashionable crowd at the polo tournament
no national leader was ever more hated by the crowd
Recent Examples on the Web
Verb
Passengers crowd the International flights departure terminal of Rome's Fiumicino airport, Friday, July 19, 2024, as many flights have been delayed or cancelled due to the worldwide internet outage.—Democrat-Gazette Staff From Wire Reports, arkansasonline.com, 20 July 2024 Hundreds of people were trapped in lines, sitting on floors and crowded into waiting areas Friday at Orlando International Airport as a global tech outage canceled flights in and out of the city.—James Wilkins, Orlando Sentinel, 19 July 2024
Noun
Ticket holders denied entry to the Copa America final are suing Hard Rock Stadium and the tournament organizers after crowds of people without tickets stormed into the match.—Martin Vassolo, Axios, 22 July 2024 There’s nothing more frustrating for a Londoner trying to get to work on time than having to push through rowdy crowds or dart between lost tourists.—Olivia Morelli, Condé Nast Traveler, 22 July 2024 See all Example Sentences for crowd
These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'crowd.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
Word History
Etymology
Verb
Middle English crouden "to push forward, jostle, press, push or drive (something wheeled)," going back to Old English crūdan "to crowd, press (against), press forward (of a ship)," going back to Germanic *krūdan- "to press, push forward" (whence also Middle Dutch crûden "to push, shove, trundle," Norwegian regional kryda (preterit kraud) "to flow together, congregate"), of uncertain origin
Note:
Old English crūdan, a Class II strong verb, is attested twice in poetic texts, as crydeþ (third person singular present) and cread (third singular preterit); evidence in other old Germanic languages is lacking. Nominal derivatives *kruda- and *krudan- are evident in Old English lindgecrod "shield-bearing crowd" and lindcroda "shield-press, battle"; the same underlying forms may be evident in Middle Dutch crod "hindrance, bother," Middle High German krot "annoyance, distress," kroten, kröten "to bother, annoy." (Further Frisian and Low German forms are detailed in the Oxford English Dictionary, first edition, s.v. crowd.) See also crud entry 2.
Middle English crouþ, croude, borrowed from Middle Welsh crwth "crowd (the instrument), fiddle, hump, humpback, anything round or bulging," going back to Celtic *krutto- "round or bulging object" (whence also, from a feminine derivative *kruttā, Welsh croth "womb, belly"; also Middle Irish crott, cruitt "harp, lyre, hump," Middle Breton courz "female genitals"), probably of expressive origin
Note:
The word crotta as the name of a musical instrument was used by the sixth century Latin poet and hymnodist Venantius Fortunatus ("… crotta Britanna canat" - "… may the British crotta sing"). The grounds for the shift from th to d in the English word are uncertain.
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