Obs. exc. Hist. Forms: 4–6 turbe, 5–6, 9 tourbe, 7–9 turb. [a. F. tourbe, OF. torbe (11th c. in Hatz.-Darm.) also turbe, ad. L. turba crowd.] A crowd, swarm, heap; a troop; also, a group or clump of trees.
c. 1330. R. Brunne, Chron. (1810), 188. In þe secund turbe was maister Coradyn.
c. 1480. St. Ursula, vii, This holy turbe to Colen made theyr retourne.
c. 1489. Caxton, Blanchardyn, xlix. 191. They came so fast by and by, And by so grete tourbes and hepes, that [etc.].
1509. Watson, Ship of Fools, xx. (1517) F ij. A grete turbe of foles fleeth to our shyppe.
1618. Dekker, Owles Almanack, 21. Every heddge and quickset, every knot, and turb of trees.
1694. Motteux, Rabelais, V. (1737), 230. When the Turb is once accumulate.
[1886. Punch, 20 March, 144. His front by nasiterge occult to serve from muscan turb his vult.]
1900. A. Lang, Hist. Scot., I. vi. 149. John Knox or Bothwell would come to his trial at the head of an armed tourbe, or gathering of partisans.
