Also † stampedo. [Originally U.S.; ad. Mexican Sp. estampida, a peculiar use of Sp. estampida, also estampido crash, uproar: see STAMP sb.1] A sudden rush and flight of a body of panic-stricken cattle.
α. 1834. U. S. Exec. Docum. 2nd Sess., 23rd Congr. I. 74 (Stanford). A stupid sentinel last night … alarmed the the camp and sent off in a stampedo the rest of the horses.
1835. W. Irving, Tour Prairies, xxvi. 230. About two hours before day there was a stampedo, or sudden rush of horses, along the purlieus of the camp.
1867. Burton, Hist. Scot., III. xxxi. 276. These visitations produced a serious practical result in a stampedo of horses.
β. 1844. G. W. Kendall, Narr. Texan Santa Fé Exped., I. 96. ‘A stampede!’ shouted some of the old campaigners, running towards their frightened animals.
a. 1864. Hawthorne, Dr. Grimshawe xviii. (1891), 227. Then, tossing their horns, they [the deer] set off on a stampede.
1884. Times, 3 March, 5/1. The shells bursting in the square, but fortunately doing no damage, only causing a stampede among the mules and horses.
b. transf. A sudden or unreasoning rush or flight of persons in a body or mass; in American politics, a sudden unconcerted rush of a political convention for a candidate who seems likely to win.
α. 1862. T. A. Trollope, Lenten Journ. Umbria, i. 4. The great lines, trodden smooth by the annual stampedo of northern travellers.
β. 1846. Longf., Life (1891), II. 69. There is a great ‘stampede’ on Parnassus at the present moment.
1859. K. Cornwallis, Panorama New World, I. 352. A sort of stampede or unreasoning rush of about twelve thousand men, principally from Victoria, was the speedy consequence.
1883. Ld. R. Gower, My Remin., I. xiii. 236. We were stopped by a stampede of peasants, some on foot, others in carts and on horseback.
1888. Bryce, Amer. Commw., II. lxx. 568. [When the break comes, i. e. when the weaker factions, perceiving that the men of their first preference cannot succeed, transfer their votes to … one … likely to succeed] … battalion after battalion goes over to the victors…. In the picturesquely technical language of politicians, it is a Stampede.
1893. Nation (N. Y.), 24 Aug., 140/3. Ward did not share the sanguine expectations of those converts who looked for an Anglican stampede into the Roman Church.
