Dictionary entry

Crowd

Webster's Dictionary 1913

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.

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.