crowd

v. t. [ imp. & p. p. Crowded; p. pr. & vb. n. Crowding. ] [ OE. crouden, cruden, AS. crūdan; cf. D. kruijen to push in a wheelbarrow. ] 1. To push, to press, to shove. Chaucer. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. To press or drive together; to mass together. “Crowd us and crush us.” Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. To fill by pressing or thronging together; hence, to encumber by excess of numbers or quantity. [ 1913 Webster ]

The balconies and verandas were crowded with spectators, anxious to behold their future sovereign. Prescott. [ 1913 Webster ]

4. To press by solicitation; to urge; to dun; hence, to treat discourteously or unreasonably. [ Colloq. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

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. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. i. 1. To press together or collect in numbers; to swarm; to throng. [ 1913 Webster ]

The whole company crowded about the fire. Addison. [ 1913 Webster ]

Images came crowding on his mind faster than he could put them into words. Macaulay. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. To urge or press forward; to force one's self; as, a man crowds into a room. [ 1913 Webster ]

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. [ 1913 Webster ]

A crowd of islands. Pope. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. A number of persons congregated or collected into a close body without order; a throng. [ 1913 Webster ]

The crowd of Vanity Fair. Macaulay. [ 1913 Webster ]

Crowds that stream from yawning doors. Tennyson. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. The lower orders of people; the populace; the vulgar; the rabble; the mob. [ 1913 Webster ]

To fool the crowd with glorious lies. Tennyson. [ 1913 Webster ]

He went not with the crowd to see a shrine. Dryden.

Syn. -- Throng; multitude. See Throng. [ 1913 Webster ]

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. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

A lackey that . . . can warble upon a crowd a little. B. Jonson. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. t. To play on a crowd; to fiddle. [ Obs. ] “Fiddlers, crowd on.” Massinger. [ 1913 Webster ]

adj. 1. overfilled or compacted or concentrated; filled to excess; as, a crowded program. Opposite of uncrowded. [ Narrower terms: full, jammed, jam-packed, packed ] [ WordNet 1.5 ]

2. filled with a crowd; as, a crowded marketplace. [ PJC ]

3. having an uncomfortable density of people; filled to excess with people; as, crowded trains; a crowded theater. [ PJC ]

n. One who plays on a crowd; a fiddler. [ Obs. ] “Some blind crowder.” Sir P. Sidney. [ 1913 Webster ]