flock
From Wiktionary, the free dictionary
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See also: Flock
Pronunciation
Etymology 1
From Middle English flok, from Old English flocc (“flock, company, troop”), from Proto-West Germanic *flokk, from Proto-Germanic *flukkaz (“crowd, troop”). Cognate with Middle Low German vlocke (“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.
Noun
flock (plural flocks)
- A number of birds together in a group, such as those gathered together for the purpose of migration.
- A large number of animals associated together in a group; commonly used of sheep, but (dated) also used for goats, farmed animals, and a wide variety of animals.
- 1886, Peter Christen Asbjørnsen, translated by H.L. Brækstad, Folk and Fairy Tales, page 170:
- He told his father, and said it would be just suitable work for him to run about fields and woods amongst the strawberry hills after a flock of hares, and now and then lie down and take a nap on some sunny hill.
- Those served by a particular pastor or shepherd.
- 1864, Alfred Tennyson, “Aylmer’s Field”, in Enoch Arden, &c., London: Edward Moxon & Co., […], →OCLC, page 83:
- But lapsed into so long a pause again / As half amazed, half frighted all his flock: [...]
- A large number of people.
- Synonym: congregation
- 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, 2 Maccabees 14:14:
- The heathen […] came to Nicanor by flocks.
- (Christianity) A religious congregation.
- Synonym: congregation
Synonyms
(large number of people):
Derived terms
Translations
group of birds
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group of animals, especially sheep or goats
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people served by a particular pastor
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group of people
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- The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
Translations to be checked: "translations to be checked"
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Verb
flock (third-person singular simple present flocks, present participle flocking, simple past and past participle flocked)
- (intransitive) To congregate in or head towards a place in large numbers.
- People flocked to the cinema to see the new film.
- 1697, Virgil, “(please specify the book number)”, in John Dryden, transl., The Works of Virgil: Containing His Pastorals, Georgics, and Æneis. […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC:
- What place the gods for our repose assigned.
Friends daily flock; and scarce the kindly spring
Began to clothe the ground
- 2021 October 20, Mark Rand, “S&C: a line fit for tourists... and everyone?”, in RAIL, number 942, page 43:
- Given the poor state of the line's trains and schedules, it is remarkable that people flock to use or experience it in embarrassingly large numbers.
- (transitive, obsolete) To flock to; to crowd.
- 1609, John Taylor, Penniless Pilgrimage:
- Good fellows, trooping, flocked me so.
Derived terms
Translations
to congregate
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Etymology 2
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 flokë (“hair”).
Noun
flock (countable and uncountable, plural flocks)
- Coarse tufts of wool or cotton used in bedding.
- A lock of wool or hair.
- c. 1597 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The First Part of Henry the Fourth, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene i]:
- I prythee, Tom, beat Cut's saddle, put a few flocks in the point.
- 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.
- 1913, Mrs. [Marie] Belloc Lowndes, chapter II, in The Lodger, London: Methuen, →OCLC; republished in Novels of Mystery: The Lodger; The Story of Ivy; What Really Happened, New York, N.Y.: Longmans, Green and Co., […], [1933], →OCLC, page 0091:
- There was a neat hat-and-umbrella stand, and the stranger's weary feet fell soft on a good, serviceable dark-red drugget, which matched in colour the flock-paper on the walls.
Derived terms
Translations
tufts of wool or cotton
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Verb
flock (third-person singular simple present flocks, present participle flocking, simple past and past participle flocked)
- (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
- (transitive) To cover a Christmas tree with artificial snow.
- (transitive) To treat a pool with chemicals to remove suspended particles.
Derived terms
Translations
to coat
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to treat a pool with chemicals to remove suspended particles — see flocculate
See also
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Etymology
From Old Swedish flokker, flukker, from Old Norse flokkr, from Proto-Germanic *flukkaz. Cognate with Faroese flokkur, Icelandic flokkur, Norwegian flokk, and Danish flok.
Pronunciation
Audio: (file)
Noun
flock c
- a flock (group of animals (or people, by extension, often emphasizing lack of independence or the like))
Declension
| nominative | genitive | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| singular | indefinite | flock | flocks |
| definite | flocken | flockens | |
| plural | indefinite | flockar | flockars |
| definite | flockarna | flockarnas |
Related terms
See also
References
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