flock
UK /flɒk/ · US /flɑk/ noun, verb, proper noun
Forms flocks flocking flocked
- noun A large number of animals associated together in a group; commonly used of sheep, but (dated) also used for goats or other livestock animals, or sometimes any group of animals.
- noun The group of sheep being watched by one shepherd.
- noun A large number of people.
- noun Those served by a particular pastor or shepherd.
- noun (Christianity) A religious congregation.
- verb (intransitive) To congregate in or head towards a place in large numbers. “People flocked to the cinema to see the new film.”
- verb (transitive, obsolete) To flock to; to crowd.
- noun Coarse tufts of wool or cotton used in bedding.
- noun A lock of wool or hair.
- noun Very fine sifted woollen refuse, especially that from shearing the nap of cloths, formerly used as a coating for wallpaper to give it a velvety or clothlike appearance; also, the dust of vegetable fibre used for a similar purpose.
- verb (transitive) To coat a surface with dense fibers or particles; especially, to create a dense arrangement of fibers with a desired nap. “the sampling and elution advantages of flocked swabs versus spun swabs”
- verb (transitive) To cover a Christmas tree with artificial snow.
- verb (transitive) To treat a pool with chemicals to remove suspended particles.
- proper noun A surname.
Synonyms
congregation fold laity bunch gaggle horde host legion litter nest rabble swarm throng wake floc batch deal good deal great deal hatful heap lot mass mess mickle mint mountain muckle passel peck
Etymology
From Middle English flok, from Old English flocc (“flock, company, troop”), from Proto-West Germanic *flokk, from Proto-Germanic *flukkaz (“crowd, troop”). Cognate with German Low German Flock (“crowd, flock”), Danish flok (“flock”), Swedish flock (“flock”), Norwegian flokk (“flock”), Faroese flokkur (“flock”), Icelandic flokkur (“flock, group”). Related also to Norman fliotchet (“flock, crowd”), from Old Norse. Perhaps related to Old English folc (“crowd, troop, band”). More at folk.
From Middle English flok (“tuft of wool”), from Old French floc (“tuft of wool”), from Late Latin floccus (“tuft of wool”), probably from Frankish *flokko (“down, wool, flock”), from Proto-Germanic *flukkōn-, *flukkan-, *fluksōn- (“down, flock”), from Proto-Indo-European *plewk- (“hair, fibres, tuft”). Cognate with Old High German flocko (“down”), Middle Dutch vlocke (“flock”), Norwegian dialectal flugsa (“snowflake”). Non-Germanic cognates include Albanian flok (“hair”).
Webster’s 1913
- noun 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.
- noun A Christian church or congregation; considered in their relation to the pastor, or minister in charge.
- verb To gather in companies or crowds.
- verb To flock to; to crowd. [Obs.]
Etymology [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.]
Etymology [OE. flokke; cf. D. vlok, G. flocke, OHG. floccho, Icel. fl, perh. akin to E. flicker, flacker, or cf. L. floccus, F. floc.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “flock”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details