throng

noun
/θɹɒŋ/UK/θɹɔŋ/US/θɹɑŋ/

Etymology

From Middle English throng, thrang, from Old English þrang, ġeþrang (“crowd, press, tumult”), from Proto-Germanic *þrangwą, *þrangwō (“throng”), from *þrangwaz (“pressing, narrow”), from *þrinhwaną (“to press, to push; to force”), from Proto-Indo-European *trenkʷ- (“to beat; pound; hew; press”). Cognate with Dutch drang, German Drang. Compare also German Gedränge (“throng”) and Persian ترنجیدن (Trenjidan, “to beat, to push”). Compare typologically crowd (see there for more).

  1. inherited from *trenkʷ-
  2. inherited from *þrangwą
  3. inherited from þrang
  4. inherited from throng

Definitions

  1. A group of people crowded or gathered closely together.

    • Not to know me argues yourselves unknown, The lowest of your throng.
    • Perhaps you suppose this throng / Can't keep it up all day long?
  2. A group of things

    A group of things; a host or swarm.

    • Bloody corpses, broken bones reveal / A throng of clashes crushed, our nightmare sealed / Amongst the shadows and the stones
  3. To crowd into a place, especially to fill it.

    • Gay sex remains illegal but is rarely prosecuted, and an estimated 26,000 revelers thronged this year’s annual Pink Dot gay rights rally — one of the largest public gatherings of any sort seen in recent years.
  4. + 4 more definitions
    1. To congregate.

      • […]I have seen the dumb men throng to see him and / The blind to bear him speak:[…]
    2. To crowd or press, as persons

      To crowd or press, as persons; to oppress or annoy with a crowd of living beings.

      • Much people followed him, and thronged him.
      • A third is wroth: ‘Is this an hour ⁠For private sorrow’s barren song, ⁠When more and more the people throng The chairs and thrones of civil power?’
      • Pulling my hat down over my eyes, so as to hide somewhat the emotions which had thronged my countenance, I took a long look at the man whom I so long had sought.
    3. Filled with persons or objects

      Filled with persons or objects; crowded.

      • Earth, sweet Earth, sweet landscape, with leavès throng / And louchèd low grass, heaven that dost appeal / To, with no tongue to plead, no heart to feel; / That canst but only be, but dost that long— […]
    4. Busy

      Busy; hurried.

      • Mr Shaw was very civil; he said he was rather throng just now, but if Ernest did not mind the sound of hammering he should be very glad of a talk with him.
      • [P]eople were having holidays all round the world, though the Glasgow shops and offices and factories were as throng with business as ever.

The neighborhood

Vish — recursive loop

A definitional loop anchored at throng. Each word in the ring is defined by the next; follow the chain far enough and it folds back on itself. Scroll to it and watch.

01throng02crowd03cram04fill05obey06ordered07respects08deceased09alive10thronged

A definitional loop anchored at throng. Each word in the ring appears in the definition of the next; follow the chain far enough and it folds back on itself.

10 hops · closes at throng

curated · pre-corpus. live cycle detection across the full graph is the next major milestone.

sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA