hoard

noun

\ˈhȯrd

Definition of hoard

(Entry 1 of 2)

: a supply or fund stored up and often hidden away a hoard of cash

hoard

verb

hoarded; hoarding; hoards

Definition of hoard (Entry 2 of 2)

transitive verb

1 : to collect and often hide away a supply of : to accumulate a hoard (see hoard entry 1) of hoarding food

2 : to keep (something, such as one's thoughts) to oneself she hoarded her intention— Virginia Woolf the people outside disperse their affections, you hoard yours, you nurse them into intensity— Joseph Conrad

intransitive verb

: to collect and often hide away a supply of something : to accumulate a hoard (see hoard entry 1) a tendency to hoard

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Examples of hoard in a Sentence

Noun

a squirrel's hoard of nuts keeps a hoard of empty yogurt containers in his basement workshop for storing whatnots

Verb

he's been hoarding empty yogurt containers all winter, with the intention of using them to start seedlings in the spring

Recent Examples on the Web: Noun

In the interview, Lili also discussed her reasoning for keeping her relationship so private, despite the hoards of Sprousehart fans (me) who are desperate for any sliver of content. — Carolyn Twersky, Seventeen, "Lili Reinhart Reveals What It’s Really Like to Date Cole Sprouse," 9 Oct. 2018 Wolters’s cash hoard has declined to €654 million at the end of June, from €1 billion a year earlier. — Nina Trentmann, WSJ, "European Finance Chiefs Struggle to Spend Cash," 3 Sep. 2018 The club level also includes an afternoon tea, likely for hoards of British travelers. — Laura Ratliff, Condé Nast Traveler, "35 Best Hotels in Dubai," 4 Mar. 2018 This all went down over the weekend during her concert at The Gabba in Brisbane, Australia, where summer is just coming to an end, leading way to hoards of bugs. — Diana Bruk, Country Living, "Watch Adele Interrupt Her Own Performance to Swat Away Mosquitoes," 6 Mar. 2017 In another, far darker continuity, Hank attacks Janet, who has shrunk to miniature size to escape his wrath, with RAID and a hoard of gigantic ants. — refinery29.com, "Ant-Man & The Wasp Have A Disturbing Incident Of Domestic Abuse In Their Past," 5 July 2018 But there’s another reason Buffett loves Apple besides its tech gadgets: Apple’s massive cash hoard, which allows it to buy back a lot of its own stock. — Jen Wieczner, Fortune, "Why Warren Buffett Loves Apple Stock," 7 May 2018 From above, the floating island juts out into the water in a rounded triangular shape and creates a Where’s Waldo tableau with hoards of people gathered around the geometric pools. — Liz Stinson, Curbed, "BIG-designed harbor bath opens in Aarhus, Denmark," 9 July 2018 Buffett likes to have a big cash hoard to ride out tough times and buy when prices are lower, holding too much cash is muting Berkshire's results. — Adam Shell, USA TODAY, "Buffett sticks by embattled Wells Fargo, balks at insuring cyber risks," 5 May 2018

Recent Examples on the Web: Verb

In 2014, another Brooklyn postal worker was arrested for hoarding 40,000 pieces of mail, but charges were later dropped. — Jamie Ducharme, Fortune, "An 'Overwhelmed' Postal Worker Didn't Deliver 17,000 Pieces of Mail," 21 Apr. 2018 This suggestion is possible thanks to an analysis of not just what was in the hoard, but also how it was hoarded. — Lorraine Boissoneault, Smithsonian, "A Search for a Lost Hammer Led to the Largest Cache of Roman Treasure Ever Found in Britain," 9 Jan. 2018 Many are increasingly collecting and hoarding scooters way before the 9 p.m. start time, chargers say. — Anna-sofia Lesiv, The Seattle Times, "The cutthroat turf war behind the race to charge Bay Area electric scooters," 10 July 2018 For every plastic bag hoarded and cord unplugged, a New Yorker tosses a cigarette butt or drops a soda bottle in the wrong bin. — Vogue, "3 Writers On Living Sustainably In 2018," 21 June 2018 In Bali, macaques steal trinkets from tourists and hoard them as bartering tools for food (in this case, the exchange rate appears to be one pair of eyeglasses for a slice of bread). — Katherine J. Wu, Smithsonian, "How Humans Created the Ultimate Superpests," 9 July 2018 The group hoarded automatic weapons and recruited scientists as members to help develop chemical and biological weapons including sarin, VX, botulism and anthrax, according to Japan's National Police Agency. — Author: Stuart Biggs, Gearoid Reidy, Anchorage Daily News, "Japan executes cult leader and 6 others for deadly 1995 sarin attack," 6 July 2018 Should signs of a sharp stock-market decline begin to emerge, private-equity firms may also hoard their cash waiting for prices to bottom. — Miriam Gottfried, WSJ, "LBO Volume Surges as KKR, Others Put $1 Trillion Cash Pile to Work," 13 June 2018 However, the Japanese giant hoards its best work for its own Alpha line of mirrorless cameras. — Brendan Nystedt, WIRED, "Sony's Newest Mirrorless Camera Flaunts Its Sensor Smarts," 23 June 2018

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'hoard.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.