crush emphasizes the compactness of the group, the difficulty of individual movement, and the attendant discomfort.
a crush of fans
mob implies a disorderly crowd with the potential for violence.
an angry mob
Examples of crowd in a Sentence
Verb
Boxes crowded the floor of my apartment.
There are too many products crowding the market.
The club has been accused of crowding too many people into too small a space.
By the end of the 10th mile, three bicyclists were crowding the racer in front.
Please move back. You're crowding me. Noun (1)
a huge crowd of fans was on hand to greet the returning World Series champions
the fashionable crowd at the polo tournament
no national leader was ever more hated by the crowd
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Verb
Midfield is crowded to say the least in Flick’s squad, and in the more attacking berths in the center of the field, Darvich would face competition from the likes of Pedri, Gavi, and Dani Olmo without mentioning Fermin Lopez.—Tom Sanderson, Forbes.com, 1 July 2025 This is nothing new — long-term residents will remember Volusia County’s lawsuit that pitted endangered sea turtles against the cars that crowded many stretches of the county’s beaches.—Orlando Sentinel Editorial Board, The Orlando Sentinel, 26 June 2025
Noun
Just jump on a return train for a few minutes back to Rougemont and a world devoid of the larger international crowds that descend upon swanky Gstaad just a few miles up the road.—John Oseid, Forbes.com, 1 July 2025 The Brat star drew one of the weekend’s biggest crowds for her set on the festival’s second-biggest stage; The 1975, Neil Young and Olivia Rodrigo were booked for Pyramid, while Loyle Carner and The Prodigy joined her on the Other.—Thomas Smith, Billboard, 30 June 2025 See All Example Sentences for crowd
Word History
Etymology
Verb
Middle English crouden "to push forward, jostle, press, push or drive (something wheeled)," going back to Old English crūdan "to crowd, press (against), press forward (of a ship)," going back to Germanic *krūdan- "to press, push forward" (whence also Middle Dutch crûden "to push, shove, trundle," Norwegian regional kryda (preterit kraud) "to flow together, congregate"), of uncertain origin
Note:
Old English crūdan, a Class II strong verb, is attested twice in poetic texts, as crydeþ (third person singular present) and cread (third singular preterit); evidence in other old Germanic languages is lacking. Nominal derivatives *kruda- and *krudan- are evident in Old English lindgecrod "shield-bearing crowd" and lindcroda "shield-press, battle"; the same underlying forms may be evident in Middle Dutch crod "hindrance, bother," Middle High German krot "annoyance, distress," kroten, kröten "to bother, annoy." (Further Frisian and Low German forms are detailed in the Oxford English Dictionary, first edition, s.v. crowd.) See also crud entry 2.
Middle English crouþ, croude, borrowed from Middle Welsh crwth "crowd (the instrument), fiddle, hump, humpback, anything round or bulging," going back to Celtic *krutto- "round or bulging object" (whence also, from a feminine derivative *kruttā, Welsh croth "womb, belly"; also Middle Irish crott, cruitt "harp, lyre, hump," Middle Breton courz "female genitals"), probably of expressive origin
Note:
The word crotta as the name of a musical instrument was used by the sixth century Latin poet and hymnodist Venantius Fortunatus ("… crotta Britanna canat" - "… may the British crotta sing"). The grounds for the shift from th to d in the English word are uncertain.
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