herd
UK /hɜːd/ · US /hɝd/ noun, verb, proper noun
Forms herds herding herded
- noun (collective) A number of domestic animals assembled together under the watch or ownership of a keeper. “a herd of cattle”
- noun (collective) Any collection of animals gathered or travelling in a company.
- noun (now usually derogatory) A crowd, a mass of people or things; a rabble. “I was never one to follow the herd.”
- noun (collective) A collection of things, especially vehicles. “Herds of buses spread across the streets.”
- verb (intransitive) To unite or associate in a herd; to feed or run together, or in company. “Sheep herd on many hills.”
- verb (transitive) To unite or associate in a herd
- verb (transitive) To manage, care for or guard a herd “He is employed to herd the goats.”
- verb (intransitive) To associate; to ally oneself with, or place oneself among, a group or company.
- verb 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.”
- noun (now rare) Someone who keeps a group of domestic animals.
- verb (intransitive, Scotland) To act as a herdsman or a shepherd.
- verb (transitive) To form or put into a herd.
- verb (transitive) To move or drive a herd. “I heard the herd of cattle being herded home from a long way away.”
- proper noun A surname.
Synonyms
Etymology
From Middle English herde, heerde, heorde, from Old English hierd, heord (“herd, flock; keeping, care, custody”), from Proto-West Germanic *herdu, from Proto-Germanic *herdō (“herd”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)kerdʰ- (“file, row, herd”). Cognate with German Herde, Danish hjord, Swedish hjord. Non-Germanic cognates include Albanian herdhe (“nest”) and Serbo-Croatian krdo.
From Middle English herde, from Old English hirde, hierde, from Proto-West Germanic *hirdī, from Proto-Germanic *hirdijaz. Cognate with German Hirte, Swedish herde, Danish hyrde.
Webster’s 1913
- adjective Haired. [Obs.] Chaucer.
- noun A number of beasts assembled together; as, a herd of horses, oxen, cattle, camels, elephants, deer, or swine; a particular stock or family of cattle.
- noun A crowd of low people; a rabble.
- noun One who herds or assembles domestic animals; a herdsman; --much used in composition; as, a shepherd; a goatherd, and the like.
Etymology [OE. herd, heord, AS. heord; akin to OHG. herta,G. herde, Icel. hjör, Sw. hjord, Dan. hiord, Goth. haírda; cf. Skr. çardha troop, host.]
Etymology [OE. hirde, herde, heorde, AS. hirde, hyrde, heorde; akin to G. hirt, hirte, OHG. hirti, Icel. hirir, Sw. herde, Dan. hyrde, Goth. haírdeis. See 2d Herd.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “herd”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details