different between mob vs flock

English

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) enPR: m?b, IPA^(key): /m?b/
• (General American) enPR: m?b, IPA^(key): /m?b/
• Rhymes: -?b

Etymology 1

From Middle English mob, short for mobile, from Latin m?bile (vulgus) (“fickle (crowd)”). The video-gaming sense originates from English mobile, used by Richard Bartle for objects capable of movement in an early MUD.

Noun

mob (plural mobs)

1. A large or disorderly group of people; especially one bent on riotous or destructive action.
   • February 13, 1788, James Madison, Jr., Federalist No. 55

     Had every Athenian citizen been a Socrates, every Athenian assembly would still have been a mob.

2. (collective noun) A group of animals such as horses or cattle.
3. A flock of emus.
4. The Mafia, or a similar group that engages in organized crime (preceded by the).

   • The Bat—they called him the Bat. […]. He'd never been in stir, the bulls had never mugged him, he didn't run with a mob, he played a lone hand, and fenced his stuff so that even the fence couldn't swear he knew his face.

   • 1986, Paul Chadwick, Concrete: Under the Desert Stars, Dark Horse Books

     What if it is a mob killing? They can’t hurt me, but …

5. (video games) A non-player character, especially one that exists to be fought or killed to further the progression of the story or game.
   • 2002, "Wolfie", Re: Whoa - massive changes due in next patch (on newsgroup alt.games.everquest)

     You can't win with small, balanced groups. You have to zerg the mob with a high number of players.

6. (archaic) The lower classes of a community; the rabble.
7. (Australian Aboriginal) A group of Aboriginal people associated with an extended family group, clan group or wider community group, from a particular place or country.
   • 2011 March 10, Allan Clarke, W.A. through Noongar eyes

     There’s nothing like local knowledge and after thousands of years living here the Noongar mob understand this land better than anyone, so it makes sense for them to tap into the lucrative tourism industry.

Synonyms

• (mafia): mafia, Mafia

Derived terms

Translations

Verb

mob (third-person singular simple present mobs, present participle mobbing, simple past and past participle mobbed)

1. (transitive) To crowd around (someone), sometimes with hostility.

   The fans mobbed a well-dressed couple who resembled their idols.
2. (transitive) To crowd into or around a place.

   The shoppers mobbed the store on the first day of the sale.

Translations

Etymology 2

Alteration of mab.

Noun

mob (plural mobs)

1. (obsolete) A promiscuous woman; a harlot or wench; a prostitute. [17th-18th c.]
2. A mob cap.
   • c. 1773-1774, Oliver Goldsmith, letter to Mrs Bunbury

     cover their faces with mobs

Derived terms

• mob cap

Verb

mob (third-person singular simple present mobs, present participle mobbing, simple past and past participle mobbed)

1. (transitive) To wrap up in, or cover with, a cowl.

Etymology 3

Abbreviation of mobile phone.

Noun

mob (plural mobs)

1. mobile phone

Usage notes

• This is most often used in signwriting to match with the other three-letter abbreviations tel (“telephone”) and fax (“facsimile”).

Further reading

• Mob in the Encyclopædia Britannica (11th edition, 1911)

References

Anagrams

• BMO, BOM, BoM, MBO, OMB

Danish

Verb

mob

1. imperative of mobbe

French

Etymology

Abbreviated form of mobylette.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /m?b/

Noun

mob f (plural mobs)

1. (colloquial) scooter, moped

Further reading

• “mob” in Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

Volapük

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /mob/

Noun

mob (nominative plural mobs)

1. suggestion

Declension

Derived terms

• mobön

White Hmong

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /m??/

Etymology

From Proto-Hmong-Mien *?mun (“illness, pain”). Cognate with Iu Mien mun.

Verb

mob

1. to be ill/sick; to hurt; to be unwell

References

• Ernest E. Heimbach, White Hmong - English Dictionary (1979, SEAP Publications)

English

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /fl?k/
• (US) IPA^(key): /fl?k/
• Rhymes: -?k

Etymology 1

From Middle English flock (“flock”), from Old English flocc (“flock, company, troop”), from Proto-Germanic *flukkaz, *flakka- (“crowd, troop”). Cognate with Middle Low German vlocke (“crowd, flock”), Old Norse flokkr (“crowd, troop, band, flock”). Perhaps related to Old English folc (“crowd, troop, band”). More at folk.

Noun

flock (plural flocks)

1. A number of birds together in a group, such as those gathered together for the purpose of migration.
2. A large number of animals associated together in a group; commonly used of various farmed animals, such as sheep and goats, but applied to a wide variety of animals.
3. Those served by a particular pastor or shepherd.
4. A large number of people.

   Synonym: congregation

5. (Christianity) A religious congregation.

   Synonym: congregation

Synonyms

(large number of people):

• bunch, gaggle, horde, host, legion, litter, nest, rabble, swarm, throng, wake

Translations

Verb

flock (third-person singular simple present flocks, present participle flocking, simple past and past participle flocked)

1. (intransitive) To congregate in or head towards a place in large numbers.

   People flocked to the cinema to see the new film.

   • What place the gods for our repose assigned.
     Friends daily flock; and scarce the kindly spring
     Began to clothe the ground

2. (transitive, obsolete) To flock to; to crowd.
   • 1609, Taylor

     Good fellows, trooping, flocked me so.

3. To treat a pool with chemicals to remove suspended particles.

Translations

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 *flukk?n-, *flukkan-, *fluks?n- (“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)

1. Coarse tufts of wool or cotton used in bedding.
2. A lock of wool or hair.
3. 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.

   • 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.

Translations

Verb

flock (third-person singular simple present flocks, present participle flocking, simple past and past participle flocked)

1. (transitive) To coat a surface with dense fibers or particles; especially, to create a dense arrangement of fibers with a desired nap.

Translations

Derived terms

• flocked

See also

• Appendix:English collective nouns

Swedish

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

Noun

flock c

1. flock; a group of people or animals
2. murder of crows

Declension

Related terms

• flockas