different between mob vs masses

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

• IPA^(key): /?mæs.?z/

Noun

masses

1. plural of mass

Noun

masses pl (plural only)

1. (generically) People, especially a large number of people

   • Since first tossing its cartoonish, good-time cock-rock to the masses in the early ’00s, The Darkness has always fallen back on this defense: The band is a joke, but hey, it’s a good joke. With Hot Cakes—the group’s third album, and first since reforming last year—the laughter has died. In its place is the sad wheeze of the last surviving party balloon slowly, listlessly deflating.

2. The total population.
   • 1975, Monty Python, Monty Python and the Holy Grail:

     Dennis: Listen, strange women lyin' in ponds distributin' swords is no basis for a system of government. Supreme executive power derives from a mandate from the masses, not from some farcical aquatic ceremony.

3. The lower classes or all but the elite.

Synonyms

• (lower classes): unwashed

Derived terms

• unwashed masses

Translations

Verb

masses

1. Third-person singular simple present indicative form of mass

See also

• unwashed masses

Further reading

• "masses" in Raymond Williams, Keywords (revised), 1983, Fontana Press, page 192.

Anagrams

• Sesmas

Catalan

Adjective

masses

1. feminine plural of massa

Noun

masses

1. plural of massa

French

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /mas/

Etymology 1

Non-lemma form

Noun

masses f

1. plural of masse

Noun

masses f pl (plural only)

1. The commoners, the people.

Etymology 2

Non-lemma form

Verb

masses

1. second-person singular present indicative of masser
2. second-person singular present subjunctive of masser

Further reading

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