Crowd v.¹

Forms: 1 crúdan, 3 crude, 4–6 croude, 4–7 crowde, 7–9 croud, 7– crowd. [OE. crúdan, 3 sing. crýdeþ, pa. t. créad, pl. *crudon, pa. pple. *croden, an original str. vb. (ablaut-series kreud-, kraud-, krud-), not known in the early stages of the other langs., but represented by MDu. crúden to press, push, later kruyden, kruyen (Kilian), Du. kruien to push in a wheel-barrow, to drive, WFris. kroadjen, EFris. krôden, krüden (kröien, krüijen) to push, press, NFris. krode, krojen, MLG. krúden, kroden, LG. krüden, krüen, MHG. kroten, kröten to oppress, etc.: see Kroten in Grimm. As in some other verbs of the same ablaut series, the present had in OE. ú, ME. ū, ou, instead of éo. The str. pa. t. crud (from pl.), pl. crodyn (from pa. pple.) were used in ME.; in the pa. pple., crod occurs in 1477, and crowden in 17th c.; but the wk. forms in -ed prevail from 16th c. The word was comparatively rare down to 1600; it does not occur in the Bible of 1611.]

  The primary sense of ‘press’ (Branch I), has in later Eng. passed into that of the mutual or combined action of multitudes compressed or gathered closely together (II).

  I.  To press, push, thrust, shove, etc.

  † 1.  intr. To press, to exert pressure (on or against).

a. 1000.  Riddles, iv. 28. Ðonne heah geþring on cleofu crydeþ.

c. 1300.  K. Alis., 609. And saide to that lady, loude, Withhold! and ageyn croude!

  2.  intr. To press, drive, or hasten on: said of a ship (or its crew); in later usage, app. treated as elliptical for crowd sail (see 9).

937.  O. E. Chron. (Parker MS.). Créad cnear on flot.

a. 1300.  K. Horn, 1293. Þat schup bigan to crude, þe wind him bleu lude.

c. 1386.  Chaucer, Man of L. T., 703 (4 MSS.). In the same schip … Hire and hir yonge sone … He schulde putte, and crowde fro the londe.

1699.  Dampier, Voy., II. II. 21. We kept on crouding till Night.

1722.  De Foe, Col. Jack (1840), 243. Crowding away to the north, [we] got the start of the English fleet.

1890.  W. Clark Russell, Ocean Trag., I. i. 16. Is it your intention to crowd on to the Cape and await her arrival there?

  b.  trans. To crowd (a ship) off.

1743.  Bulkeley & Cummins, Voy. S. Seas, 16. [He] desired we would use our utmost Endeavours to crowd the Ship off.

1768.  J. Byron, Narr. Patagonia (ed. 2), 9. We wore ship … and endeavoured to crowd her off from the land.

  † 3.  trans. To press (anything), to move by pressure, to push, shove; spec. to push in a wheelbarrow or hand-cart. (Also absol.) Obs. exc. dial.

c. 1330.  Amis & Amil., 1861. Than Amoraunt crud Sir Amiloun Thurch mani a cuntre, vp and doun. Ibid., 1883. He crud his wain into the fen.

c. 1386.  Chaucer, Man of L. T., 801 (Ellesm.). But in the same ship … Hire and hir yonge sone … He sholde putte and croude hire fro the lond.

14[?].  ABC Poem, 54, in Pol. Rel. & L. Poems, 245. Cananis hym crodyn to heroudis kyng, Þer had he gret scornyng.

c. 1440.  Promp. Parv., 105. Crowde wythe a barow, cinevecto. Crowdyn’, or showen, impello.

1477.  Marg. Paston, in Paston Lett., No. 809, III. 215. Sche sent … word … that sche xuld come hedyr … thoow sche xuld be crod in a barwe.

1674.  N. Fairfax, Bulk & Selv., 123. Whence ’tis, that I can crowd a bigger body than I can throw.

1710.  J. Clarke, Rohault’s Nat. Phil. (1729), I. 97. Those little Columns of Water which are longer than the other … will never leave crouding them up, till the surface of the Liquor is come to a Level.

1847.  Halliwell, Crowd, to wheel about. Norf.

  4.  intr. To push, or force one’s way into a confined space, through a crowd, etc.; to press forward, up, etc. Now only fig., as in quot. 1858, and colored by 5.

a. 1415.  Lydg., Temple of Glass, 534. Within þe tempil me þouȝte þat I sey Gret pres of folk … To croude and shove—þe tempil was so ful.

1597.  Shaks., 2 Hen. IV., III. ii. 347. Then he burst his Head, for crowding among the Marshals men.

1602.  Marston, Antonio’s Rev., II. iii. D 4 b. Throngs of thoughts crowde for their passage.

1674.  N. Fairfax, Bulk & Selv., 138. It cannot stir without asking another bodies leave to crowd by.

1687.  A. Farmer, in Magd. Coll. (Oxf. Hist. Soc.), 72. He crowded into a Dancing Room.

1858.  O. W. Holmes, Aut. Breakf.-t., 353. The great maternal instinct came crowding up in her soul.

  II.  Senses in which the notion of physical compression or mutual pressure gradually changes into that of the incommoding effect: cf. THRONG.

  5.  intr. Of persons, etc., in numbers: To press toward a common center, to gather or congregate closely so as to press upon one another; to come or assemble in large numbers or crowds; to flock, throng. With many advbs. and preps., e.g., to crowd in; about, after (a person); into, to, upon (a place or thing). Also fig.

a. 1400.  Pist. Susan, 83. On croppus of canel keneliche þei croude.

1583.  Stanyhurst, Æneis, iii. (Arb.), 70. Men to vs thick crouded.

1654.  R. Whitlock, Ζωοτομια, 408. People not being so hasty to crowde in, or justle them out of these Quarters.

a. 1661.  Fuller, Worthies (1840), III. 409. Multitudes of people crowded to his sermons.

1709.  Berkeley, Th. Vision, § 110. There croud into his mind the ideas which [etc.].

1716.  Lady M. W. Montague, Lett., 14 Sept. The company crowded away in such confusion, that I was almost squeezed to death.

1840.  Thirlwall, Greece, VII. lvii. 232. The Macedonians crowded about him.

1875.  Jowett, Plato (ed. 2), III. 197. Suspicions and alarms crowd upon him.

  6.  trans. a. To press, thrust, force, cram (things) in, or into a confined space; † to compress (air, etc.). Also to press (things) in numbers on a person. Also fig.

1599.  Shaks., Hen. V., I. ii. 200. The poore Mechanicke Porters, crowding in Their heauy burthens at his narrow gate. Ibid. (1606), Tr. & Cr., I. ii. 23. A man into whom nature hath so crowded humors.

1654.  R. Whitlock, Ζωοτομια, 326. We may heare crowd in an Example to be found in the same Book of Justin.

1660.  Boyle, New Exp. Phys.-Mech., xxvii. (1682), 107. A quantity of Air crouded and shut up.

1691.  E. Taylor, Behmen’s Aurora, i. 242. Heat consumeth the Water, cold crowdeth the Air.

1725.  De Foe, Voy. round World (1840), 122. Nor have I room to crowd many of these things into this account.

1776.  G. Semple, Building in Water, 138. Take the utmost Precautions to have … every Thing necessary to crowd in your stuffing.

1848.  Macaulay, Hist. Eng., II. 504. In revolutions men live fast: the experience of years is crowded into hours.

1856.  Kane, Arct. Expl., II. xxv. 248. Myouk is crowding fresh presents of raw birds on me as if I could eat forever.

  b.  To compress; to collect, bring, or pack closely together, as in a crowd.

1612.  Proc. Virginia, vi. in Capt. Smith’s Wks. (Arb.), 119. The rest … crowded in so small a barge, in so many dangers.

1653.  Holcroft, Procopius, I. xix. 29. The people being crouded together.

1746.  Jortin, Chr. Relig., vi. (R.). It would not have entered into their thoughts to have crowded together so many allusions.

1776.  Withering, Brit. Plants, II. 360. Aristolochia Clematitis … flowers crowded, in the bosom of the leaf-stalks.

1881.  Jowett, Thucyd., I. Introd. 15. A strong individuality … which crowds the use of words, which thinks more than it can express.

Mod.  We were standing crowded together before the picture.

  † c.  To compress (a single thing) in a narrow space; to confine. Obs.

c. 1632.  Poem, in Athenæum, No. 2883. 121/3. Doe nott thou presume To crowd the Founder in a narrow Tombe.

1672.  Dryden, Conq. Granada, III. i. 122. Why will you in your Breast your Passion croud.

1707.  Collier, Refl. Ridic., 249. They are crowded and wrapt up in themselves.

  † d.  To compress, crush, squeeze to death in a crowd. Also fig. Obs.

1597.  Shaks., 2 Hen. IV., IV. ii. 34. The Time (mis-order’d) doth … Crowd vs, and crush vs, to this monstrous Forme.

1598.  Stow, Surv., v. (1603), 25. Many persons were crowded to death.

1647.  Clarendon, Hist. Reb., I. (1843), 17/1. Great numbers … were crowded to death.

1786.  Sir H. Croft, Abbey of Kilkhampton, 99. He was crowded to Death with Honours.

  7.  a. To fill or occupy with a crowd or dense multitude; to fill to excess or encumbrance; to cram with.

1695.  Woodward, Nat. Hist. Earth, II. (1723), 120. I shall not crowd this Piece with them.

1715.  Pope, Pref. to Homer (Seager). This [subject] he has … crowded with a greater number of councils, speeches, battles, and episodes of all kinds.

1777.  W. Dalrymple, Trav. Sp. & Port., cxv. The roads were crouded with little saints and altars.

1848.  Macaulay, Hist. Eng., I. 597. A port crowded with shipping.

  b.  To fill as a crowd does, to throng (a place). (The passive of result is to be crowded with as in a.; the passive of action to be crowded by.)

1646.  Pagitt, Heresiogr. (ed. 3), A iv. They run after these men … crowding the Churches, filling their doors and windows.

1697.  Dryden, Virg. Georg., IV. 316. They crowd his Levees, and support his Throne.

1769.  Robertson, Chas. V., III. VIII. 119. A court crouded with armed men.

1883.  Daily News, 31 Oct., 5/3. Considering how the trains were crowded by Exhibition visitors, an appalling catastrophe might have happened.

1884.  R. W. Church, Bacon, i. 20. The servile and insincere flatterers … who crowded the antechambers of the great Queen.

  † c.  To press upon or beset (a person or place) as a crowd does, to surround, encumber, incommode by pressure of numbers, to crowd upon; also to occupy or encumber with a multitude of things. Obs. or arch.

1614.  W. B., Philosopher’s Banquet (ed. 2), A ij b. Resort shall croud him wheresoere he dwell.

1697.  Dryden, Virg. Georg., III. 579. The Men … crowd the chearful Fire.

1726.  Ld. Lansdowne, Death, iii. Poems 65 (J.).

1741.  Johnson, Life Morin. A man of this temper was not crouded with salutations. Ibid. (1783), Lett. to Mrs. Thrale, 27 Dec. I am crowded with visits.

  † d.  Said of things: To press upon (one another) in a crowd. Obs. exc. dial.

1657.  Austen, Fruit Trees, I. 65. Frettings and gallings, that happens to Trees that thrust, and croud one another.

a. 1825.  Forby, Voc. E. Anglia, Crowd v., to push, shove or press close. To the word, in its common acceptation, number seems necessary. With us, one individual can crowd another. [And so in U.S. (F. Hall).]

  e.  U. S. colloq. ‘To urge; to press by solicitation; to dun’ (Webster, 1828).

  8.  Crowd out: to push or force out by pressure of a crowd (obs.); to exclude by crowding, or because the crowd is more than the space can hold.

1652.  Dorothy Osborne, Lett. (1888), 30. ’Tis very possible the next new experiment may crowd me out again.

1684–90.  Burnet, Th. Earth, I. viii. 69 (J.). According as it [the sea] can make its way into all those Subterraneous Cavities, and crowd the Air out of them.

1841–4.  Emerson, Ess. Over-Soul, Wks. (Bohn), I. 111. [The] cuckoo Crowds every egg out of the nest.

1888.  Bryce, Amer. Commw., II. lxxiv. 615. They crowd out better men.

1889.  Morning Post, 24 June, 2/1. Works sent to the Royal Academy and crowded out.

  9.  Naut. To crowd sail: to hoist an unusual number of sails on a ship; to carry a press of sail for the purpose of speed.

  The phrase appears to be derived from sense 2 by confusion or association with the common mod. sense.

1687.  Lond. Gaz., No. 2251/4. They crowded all the Sail they could possible make after us.

1745.  P. Thomas, Jrnl. Anson’s Voy., 112. In crowding Sail to come up with her we carried away our Flying-Jib-Boom.

1844.  W. H. Maxwell, Sports & Adv. Scotl., xiii. (1853), 119. Canvass was crowded on the Clorinde.