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
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Verb
Food costs are high, and the industry is crowded; spice can be a cheap way to produce flavor, get consumer attention, and mask less-expensive ingredients such as corn and chicken.—Ellen Cushing, The Atlantic, 18 Aug. 2025 However, Flacco remains atop the depth chart, and the quarterback room is crowded with two weeks before final roster cuts.—Trevor Squire, MSNBC Newsweek, 16 Aug. 2025
Noun
The fiery right-hander tied a season-high with 10 strikeouts over six strong inning after giving up a leadoff homer, Manny Machado ended a 14-game RBI drought and the Padres beat the Giants 5-1 in front of a sellout crowd of 40,624 to snap a four-game skid.—Jeff Sanders, San Diego Union-Tribune, 20 Aug. 2025 For the third Sunday in a row, a crowd gathered for what’s become a growing weekly protest outside the controversial immigration detention center.—Lauren Costantino, Miami Herald, 19 Aug. 2025 See All Example Sentences for crowd
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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