Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun An ancient Celtic stringed instrument that was bowed or plucked.
  • noun Chiefly British A fiddle.
  • noun A large number of persons gathered together; a throng.
  • noun The common people; the populace.
  • noun A group of people united by a common characteristic, as age, interest, or vocation.
  • noun A group of people attending a public function; an audience.
  • noun A large number of things positioned or considered together.
  • intransitive verb To gather together in a limited space.
  • intransitive verb To move forward by pressing or shoving.
  • intransitive verb To force by pressing or shoving.
  • intransitive verb To force away by taking up space; displace:
  • intransitive verb To draw or stand very near or too near to.
  • intransitive verb To press, cram, or force tightly together.
  • intransitive verb To fill or occupy to overflowing.
  • intransitive verb Informal To put pressure on; assail.
  • idiom (crowd (on) sail) To spread a large amount of sail to increase speed.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To play on a crowd or fiddle.
  • noun An ancient Welsh and Irish musical instrument, the earliest known specimen of the viol class—that is, of stringed instruments played with a bow.
  • noun A collection; a multitude; a large number of things collected or grouped together; a number of things lying near one another.
  • noun A large number of persons congregated together, or gathered into a close body without order; a throng.
  • noun Any group or company of persons: as, a jolly crowd.
  • noun People in general; the populace; the mass; the mob.
  • noun Same as crode.
  • noun Synonyms and Throng, etc. (see multitude), host, swarm, concourse, shoal.
  • To push; force forward; shove; impel.
  • To push or wheel in a wheelbarrow.
  • To press close, or closely together; push or drive in; squeeze; cram: as, to crowd too much freight into a ship; to crowd many people into a small room.
  • To fill to excess; occupy or pack with an unusual or inordinate number or quantity: as, the audience crowded the theater; to crowd a ship's hold.
  • To throng about; press upon; press as by a multitude: as, we were most uncomfortably crowded.
  • To encumber or annoy by multitudes or excess of numbers.
  • To urge; press by solicitation; importune; annoy by urging: as, to crowd a debtor for immediate payment.
  • To press in numbers; come together closely; swarm: as, the multitude crowded through the gate or into the room.
  • To press forward; increase speed; advance pushingly, as against obstacles: as, to crowd into a full room, or into company.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • intransitive verb To press together or collect in numbers; to swarm; to throng.
  • intransitive verb To urge or press forward; to force one's self.
  • transitive verb obsolete To play on a crowd; to fiddle.
  • transitive verb To push, to press, to shove.
  • transitive verb To press or drive together; to mass together.
  • transitive verb To fill by pressing or thronging together; hence, to encumber by excess of numbers or quantity.
  • transitive verb colloq. To press by solicitation; to urge; to dun; hence, to treat discourteously or unreasonably.
  • transitive verb to press out; specifically, to prevent the publication of; as, the press of other matter crowded out the article.
  • transitive verb (Naut.) to carry an extraordinary amount of sail, with a view to accelerate the speed of a vessel; to carry a press of sail.
  • noun An ancient instrument of music with six strings; a kind of violin, being the oldest known stringed instrument played with a bow.
  • noun A number of things collected or closely pressed together; also, a number of things adjacent to each other.
  • noun A number of persons congregated or collected into a close body without order; a throng.
  • noun The lower orders of people; the populace; the vulgar; the rabble; the mob.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun obsolete A crwth, an Ancient Celtic plucked string instrument.
  • noun now dialectal A fiddle.
  • verb obsolete, intransitive To play on a crowd; to fiddle.
  • verb transitive To push, to press, to shove.

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English croud, from Middle Welsh crwth.]

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[From Middle English crowden, to crowd, press, from Old English crūdan, to hasten, press.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Celtic, from Welsh crwth.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Old English crūdan. Cognate with Dutch kruien.

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  • A fiddle. --old British provincial term from Exmoor. Cf. crowth.

    May 5, 2011