Adjacent Words

Flock definitions

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Webster's 1828 Dictionary

FLOCK, n. [L. floccus. It is the same radically as flake, and applied to wool or hair, we write it lock. See Flake.]
1. A company or collection; applied to sheep and other small animals. A flock of sheep answers to a herd of larger cattle. But the word may sometimes perhaps be applied to larger beasts, and in the plural, flocks may include all kinds of domesticated animals.
2. A company or collection of fowls of any kind, and when applied to birds on the wing, a flight; as a flock of wild-geese; a flock of ducks; a flock of blackbirds. in the United States, flocks of wild-pigeons sometimes darken the air.
3. A body or crowd of people. [little used. Gr. a troop.]
4. A lock of wool or hair. Hence, a flockbed.
FLOCK, v.i. To gather in companies or crowds; applied to men or other animals. People flock together. They flock to the play-house.
Friends daily flock.

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

n
1: a church congregation guided by a pastor
2: a group of birds
3: (often followed by `of') a large number or amount or extent; "a batch of letters"; "a deal of trouble"; "a lot of money"; "he made a mint on the stock market"; "see the rest of the winners in our huge passel of photos"; "it must have cost plenty"; "a slew of journalists"; "a wad of money" [syn: batch, deal, flock, good deal, great deal, hatful, heap, lot, mass, mess, mickle, mint, mountain, muckle, passel, peck, pile, plenty, pot, quite a little, raft, sight, slew, spate, stack, tidy sum, wad]
4: an orderly crowd; "a troop of children" [syn: troop, flock]
5: a group of sheep or goats [syn: flock, fold] v
1: move as a crowd or in a group; "Tourists flocked to the shrine where the statue was said to have shed tears"
2: come together as in a cluster or flock; "The poets constellate in this town every summer" [syn: cluster, constellate, flock, clump]

Merriam Webster's

I. noun Etymology: Middle English, from Old English flocc crowd, band; akin to Old Norse flokkr crowd, band Date: 13th century 1. a group of animals (as birds or sheep) assembled or herded together 2. a group under the guidance of a leader; especially a church congregation 3. a large number <a flock of tourists> II. intransitive verb Date: 14th century to gather or move in a flock <they flocked to the beach> III. noun Etymology: Middle English flok, from Anglo-French, from Latin floccus Date: 13th century 1. a tuft of wool or cotton fiber 2. woolen or cotton refuse used for stuffing furniture and mattresses 3. very short or pulverized fiber used especially to form a velvety pattern on cloth or paper or a protective covering on metal 4. floc IV. transitive verb Date: 1530 1. to fill with flock 2. to decorate with flock

Oxford Reference Dictionary

1. n. & v. --n. 1 a a number of animals of one kind, esp. birds, feeding or travelling together. b a number of domestic animals, esp. sheep, goats, or geese, kept together. 2 a large crowd of people. 3 a a Christian congregation or body of believers, esp. in relation to one minister. b a family of children, a number of pupils, etc. --v.intr. 1 congregate; mass. 2 (usu. foll. by to, in, out, together) go together in a crowd; troop (thousands flocked to Wembley). Etymology: OE flocc 2. n. 1 a lock or tuft of wool, cotton, etc. 2 a (also in pl.; often attrib.) material for quilting and stuffing made of wool-refuse or torn-up cloth (a flock pillow). b powdered wool or cloth. Phrases and idioms: flock-paper (or -wallpaper) wallpaper sized and sprinkled with powdered wool to make a raised pattern. Derivatives: flocky adj. Etymology: ME f. OF floc f. L floccus

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Flock Flock, n. [AS. flocc flock, company; akin to Icel. flokkr crowd, Sw. flock, Dan. flok; prob. orig. used of flows, and akin to E. fly. See Fly.] 1. A company or collection of living creatures; -- especially applied to sheep and birds, rarely to persons or (except in the plural) to cattle and other large animals; as, a flock of ravenous fowl. --Milton. The heathen . . . came to Nicanor by flocks. --2 Macc. xiv. 14. 2. A Christian church or congregation; considered in their relation to the pastor, or minister in charge. As half amazed, half frighted all his flock. --Tennyson.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Flock Flock, v. t. To coat with flock, as wall paper; to roughen the surface of (as glass) so as to give an appearance of being covered with fine flock.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Flock Flock, v. i. [imp. & p. p. Flocked; p. pr. & vb. n. Flocking.] To gather in companies or crowds. Friends daily flock. --Dryden. Flocking fowl (Zo["o]l.), the greater scaup duck.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Flock Flock, v. t. To flock to; to crowd. [Obs.] Good fellows, trooping, flocked me so. --Taylor (1609).

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Flock Flock, n. [OE. flokke; cf. D. vlok, G. flocke, OHG. floccho, Icel. fl[=o]ki, perh. akin to E. flicker, flacker, or cf. L. floccus, F. floc.] 1. A lock of wool or hair. I prythee, Tom, beat Cut's saddle, put a few flocks in the point [pommel]. --Shak. 2. Woolen or cotton refuse (sing. or pl.), old rags, etc., reduced to a degree of fineness by machinery, and used for stuffing unpholstered furniture. 3. Very fine, sifted, woolen refuse, especially that from shearing the nap of cloths, used as a coating for wall paper to give it a velvety or clothlike appearance; also, the dust of vegetable fiber used for a similar purpose. Flock bed, a bed filled with flocks or locks of coarse wool, or pieces of cloth cut up fine. ``Once a flock bed, but repaired with straw.'' --Pope. Flock paper, paper coated with flock fixed with glue or size.

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

(flocks, flocking, flocked) 1. A flock of birds, sheep, or goats is a group of them. They kept a small flock of sheep... They are gregarious birds and feed in flocks. N-COUNT-COLL: usu N of n 2. You can refer to a group of people or things as a flock of them to emphasize that there are a lot of them. These cases all attracted flocks of famous writers. ...his flock of advisers. N-COUNT-COLL: N of n [emphasis] 3. If people flock to a particular place or event, a very large number of them go there, usually because it is pleasant or interesting. The public have flocked to the show... The criticisms will not stop people flocking to see the film... His greatest wish must be that huge crowds flock into the beautiful park. VERB: V to n, V to-inf, V prep/adv

International Standard Bible Encyclopedia

See CATTLE.

Soule's Dictionary of English Synonyms

I. n. 1. Collection (of sheep, etc.), company. 2. Congregation. 3. Lock of wool. 4. Cotton and woollen refuse. II. v. n. Congregate, herd, gather in crowds.

Moby Thesaurus

a mass of, a world of, army, assemble, assembly, band, band together, bang, bangs, bevy, body, brethren, bunch, charm, chip, churchgoers, class, cloud, cluster, clutter, cohue, collect, collection, colony, come together, company, congregate, congregation, convoy, covey, crowd, crush, dandruff, deluge, drift, drive, drove, fetlock, flake, fleck, fleet, flight, floccule, flocculus, flocks, flood, fold, forelock, fringe, gaggle, galaxy, gam, gang, gather, gathering, go, go together, group, hail, heap, herd, herd together, hive, horde, host, jam, kennel, laity, large amount, laymen, legion, litter, lots, many, mass, masses of, meet, minyan, mob, muchness, multitude, murmuration, nest, nonclerics, nonordained persons, number, numbers, pack, panoply, paring, parish, parishioners, people, plague, plurality, pod, pour, press, pride, quantities, quantity, quiff, quite a few, rabble, rout, ruck, scale, school, scores, scurf, seculars, set, shaving, sheep, shoal, skein, skulk, sloth, society, spate, spring, swarm, throng, tidy sum, trip, troop, troupe, tuft, watch, worlds of