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 , 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 ones self; as, a man crowds into a room."

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. t. To play on a crowd; to fiddle. [Obs.] "Fiddlers, crowd on." Massinger.

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.

-- Webster's unabridged 1913