herd

Etymology

Definitions

1. 1

   A number of domestic animals assembled together under the watch or ownership of a keeper.

   • a herd of cattle
   • a herd of sheep
   • a herd of goats
2. 2

   Any collection of animals gathered or travelling in a company.

   • Zakouma is the last place on Earth where you can see more than a thousand elephants on the move in a single, compact herd.
   • Zebras can also be called a herd or a zeal.
3. 3

   A crowd, a mass of people or things

   A crowd, a mass of people or things; a rabble.

   • I was never one to follow the herd.
   • But far more numerous vvas the herd of ſuch, / VVho think too little, and vvho talk too much.
   • You can never interest the common herd in the abstract question.
4. ›+ 9 more definitionsshow fewer

   1. 4

      To unite or associate in a herd

      To unite or associate in a herd; to feed or run together, or in company.

      • Sheep herd on many hills.
      • The women bunched up in little droves and let their tongues clack, and the men herded together and passed a jug around and, to tell the truth, let their tongues clack too.
      • Any predator that preys on animals that herd or school, has to be able to single out one individual to attack.
   2. 5

      To manage, care for or guard a herd

      • He is employed to herd the goats.
   3. 6

      To associate

      To associate; to ally oneself with, or place oneself among, a group or company.

      • I’ll herd among his Friends, and ſeem One of the Number, […]
      • "[W]hy, I say, oh stranger, dost thou think that I herd here with barbarians lower than the beasts?"
   4. 7

      To move, or be moved, in a group. (of both animals and people)

      • On alighting at the station, we were all herded over the footbridge and through a side exit.
   5. 8

      Someone who keeps a group of domestic animals.

      • Near-synonym: herdsman
      • John Dodds, the herd who bode in the place, was standing at the door, and he looked to see who was on the road so late.
      • Any talent which gives a good new thing to others is a miracle, but commentators have thought it extra miraculous that England's first known poet was an illiterate herd.
   6. 9

      To act as a herdsman or a shepherd.

   7. 10

      To form or put into a herd.

   8. 11

      To move or drive a herd.

      • I heard the herd of cattle being herded home from a long way away.
   9. 12

      A surname.

The neighborhood

• neighbordrove
• neighborgather
• neighbormuster
• neighborride herd on
• neighborround up