stampede

noun

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stam·pede | \ (ˌ)stam-ˈpēd

Definition of stampede

(Entry 1 of 2)

1 : a wild headlong rush or flight of frightened animals

2 : a mass movement of people at a common impulse

3 : an extended festival combining a rodeo with exhibitions, contests, and social events

stampede

verb

stampeded; stampeding

Definition of stampede (Entry 2 of 2)

transitive verb

1 : to cause to run away in headlong panic

2 : to cause (a group or mass of people) to act on sudden or rash impulse

intransitive verb

1 : to flee headlong in panic

2 : to act on mass impulse

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Examples of stampede in a Sentence

Noun a stampede to the exits a stampede to buy the stock a stampede of new applicants Verb People stampeded to the exits. The gunshot stampeded the cattle.

Recent Examples on the Web: Noun The tech industry's stampede into audio comes amid Clubhouse's growth, despite the limited availability of its invitation-only service. — Fortune, "Clubhouse’s rise sets off a scramble by rivals to copy it. Here’s who’s trying," 31 Mar. 2021 But this time around the dark horses became a stampede—with unexpected nods for retro-soul duo Black Pumas, R&B singer Jhené Aiko, veteran rockers Coldplay and Mr. Collier, a 26-year-old musical prodigy. — Neil Shah, WSJ, "A Grammys 2021 Playlist: From Taylor Swift to Megan Thee Stallion, Eight Songs to Stream Ahead of the Awards," 12 Mar. 2021 This was, as Mr. Blevins shows, no simple task; if rumors of rich ore triggered a stampede to a remote mining camp, the Post Office Department was expected to serve the location right away. — Marc Levinson, WSJ, "‘Paper Trails’ Review: Go West, Young Mailman," 24 Mar. 2021 At one point, law enforcement officials used pepper balls, and a subsequent stampede of people were seen running from the scene. — Emma Colton, Washington Examiner, "SWAT teams and pepper spray balls deployed in Miami Beach to enforce curfew stemming from COVID concerns," 21 Mar. 2021 Thousands of people are converging on these sites at once, causing servers to crash under the weight of the stampede. — Casey Ross @caseymross, STAT, "Vaccine registration technology is failing. Here’s how the Biden administration could fix it," 14 Jan. 2021 In the last year, media companies have joined the streaming stampede. — Meg James, Los Angeles Times, "Why media stocks are booming one year after coronavirus shutdown," 10 Mar. 2021 The stampede is fueling predictions of a first-day pop when Ant is due to start trading on Nov. 5, even as skeptics warn of risks including the U.S. election, tightening regulations in China and rising Covid-19 infections worldwide. — John Cheng, Bloomberg.com, "Jack Ma’s Ant IPO Lures $3 Trillion of Bids in Retail Frenzy," 29 Oct. 2020 Who will raise money for the veteran’s park and the rodeo stampede now that state legislator Lance Carson is gone? — Annie Gowen, Anchorage Daily News, "COVID-19 gets personal in a South Dakota town as neighbors die and a mask mandate is debated," 9 Dec. 2020 Recent Examples on the Web: Verb Party members’ jobs, usually something like knight or warlock, are literally blue-collar jobs: the foreman of a construction company who wields an enormous war hammer and can summon a parade of workers to stampede the enemy. — Wired Staff, Wired, "The Video Games WIRED Loved Most in 2020," 26 Dec. 2020 More than 70 animatronic dinosaurs and an 80-foot-long spinosaurus – all socially distanced and on their best behavior – will stampede into the massive parking lot outside the arena Dec. 4-20 for Jurassic Quest Drive-Thru. — Phillip Valys, sun-sentinel.com, "Dinosaur tailgate party? 70 animatronic dinosaurs stampeding into BB&T Center parking lot," 27 Nov. 2020 There are rampaging Ohms, mountainous bugs that stampede across the desert like the sandworms in Dune. — Ryu Spaeth, The New Republic, "Hayao Miyazaki’s Viral Stories," 19 Nov. 2020 The pandemic has prompted Americans to stampede online in record numbers. — Matt Day, Bloomberg.com, "Amazon's Drugstore Isn't Revolutionizing Anything—for Now," 18 Nov. 2020 But the virus continued to stampede through Central Florida with new deaths and more cases reported on Monday. — Ryan Gillespie, orlandosentinel.com, "Orange hotel tax collection inch up as virus continues to spread," 9 Nov. 2020 As the began stampeding across Maryland in recent weeks, scientists tucked away in a University of Maryland research lab in Baltimore got an idea about how to put their high-tech robots to use. — Meredith Cohn, Washington Post, "With help of robots, Maryland medical school to vastly expand state’s testing for coronavirus — if swabs can be found," 19 Apr. 2020 As the coronavirus now stampedes across Britain and much of the world, Mr. Johnson is heeding the same principle, spurning the mass closures that have become commonplace across Europe and gambling his political future on a more restrained approach. — Benjamin Mueller, New York Times, "As Europe Shuts Down, Britain Takes a Different, and Contentious, Approach," 13 Mar. 2020 Earlier this month, there was a rout when mutual funds had to sell municipal bonds to raise cash when herds of investors started stampeding to redeem their shares. — New York Times, "Stock Markets in Asia Climb After U.S. Rally: Live Updates," 27 Mar. 2020

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

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Last Updated

10 Apr 2021

Cite this Entry

“Stampede.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/stampede. Accessed 12 Apr. 2021.

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More Definitions for stampede

stampede

noun

English Language Learners Definition of stampede

(Entry 1 of 2)

: an occurrence in which a large group of frightened or excited animals or people run together in a wild and uncontrolled way to escape from something, get out of a place, etc.

: a situation in which a lot of people try to do the same thing at the same time

stampede

verb

English Language Learners Definition of stampede (Entry 2 of 2)

: to run away in a large group from something especially because of fear

: to cause (animals) to run away in a large group

: to cause (a person or a group of people) to do something suddenly and without proper thought

See the full definition for stampede in the English Language Learners Dictionary

stampede

noun

stam·pede | \ stam-ˈpēd