throng
/θrɒŋ
/noun
A large, densely packed crowd of people or animals: he pushed his way through the throng a throng of birds...
- There are no perspiring throngs of Brits packing suffocating beaches.
- Becker's testimony, given in German, was carried live on German television and a throng of journalists packed the courthouse for the proceedings.
- The band launches in to their first song and the crowd is a throng of jumping bodies.
Synonyms
crowd, mass, multitude, horde, host, mob, assemblage, gathering, congregation, crush, press, body, band, army, troop, legion, gang, stream, swarm, flock, bevy, herd, pack, drove, array, sea, myriad, pile;
knot, cluster, group
verb [with object]
1(Of a crowd) fill or be present in (a place or area): a crowd thronged the station the pavements are thronged with people...
- The place was thronged with people, all quietly enjoying the moment.
- He is enthused by the huge crowds thronging the place on the first day of the festival and fervently hopes that the flow would continue at the same pace.
- For the crowds thronging the place more to see the complex than to watch movies, it's an enjoyable experience.
Synonyms
pack (into), cram (into), jam, fill, press into, squeeze into;
North American mob
crowd round, press round, mill around/round;
congregate round, converge round, hem in, mob, jostle
1.1 [no object, with adverbial of direction] Flock or be present in great numbers: tourists thronged to the picturesque village...
- This recommendation would not go down well with most tourists who throng to the hills in summer and the plains in winter.
- Happy inhabitants throng with tourists, all very convivial.
- Baharum said checking hotel guest lists is a precautionary measure as many foreign tourists throng to the Golden Triangle.
Synonyms
rush, stream, flock, troop, crowd, swarm, surge, flood, flow, spill, teem
Origin
Old English (ge)thrang 'crowd, tumult', of Germanic origin. The early sense of the verb (Middle English) was 'press violently, force one's way'.