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.
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 one's 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.
Hear it pronounced