different between throng vs drove

English

Etymology

From Middle English throng, thrang, from Old English þrang, ?eþrang (“crowd, press, tumult”), from Proto-Germanic *þrangw?, *þrangw? (“throng”), from *þrangwaz (“pressing, narrow”), from Proto-Indo-European *trenk?- (“to beat; pound; hew; press”). Cognate with Dutch drang, German Drang. Compare also German Gedränge (“throng”).

Pronunciation

• (UK) enPR: thr?ng, IPA^(key): /????/
• (US) enPR: thrông, thr?ng, IPA^(key): /????/, /????/
• Rhymes: -??

Noun

throng (plural throngs)

1. A group of people crowded or gathered closely together.

   Synonyms: crowd, multitude

   • 1939, Ammianus Marcellinus, John Carew Rolfe, Ammianus Marcellinus, Volume 1, Harvard University Press, page 463:

     Here, mingled with the Persians, who were rushing to the higher ground with the same effort as ourselves, we remained motionless until sunrise of the next day, so crowded together that the bodies of the slain, held upright by the throng, could nowhere find room to fall, and that in front of me a soldier with his head cut in two, and split into equal halves by a powerful sword stroke, was so pressed on all sides that he stood erect like a stump.
2. A group of things; a host or swarm.

Translations

Verb

throng (third-person singular simple present throngs, present participle thronging, simple past and past participle thronged)

1. (transitive) To crowd into a place, especially to fill it.
2. (intransitive) To congregate.
   • c. 1608, William Shakespeare, Coriolanus, Act II scene i^[3]:

     […] I have seen the dumb men throng to see him and / The blind to bear him speak: […]

3. (transitive) To crowd or press, as persons; to oppress or annoy with a crowd of living beings.

   • Much people followed him, and thronged him.

Related terms

• thring

Translations

Adjective

throng (comparative more throng, superlative most throng)

1. (Northern England, Scotland, dialectal) Filled with persons or objects; crowded.
2. (Northern England, Scotland, dialectal) Busy; hurried.
   • 1903, Samuel Butler, The Way of All Flesh, ch 59:

     Mr Shaw was very civil; he said he was rather throng just now, but if Ernest did not mind the sound of hammering he should be very glad of a talk with him.

English

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /d???v/
  • Rhymes: -??v
• (General American) IPA: /d?o?v/
• (Can we verify⁽⁺⁾ this pronunciation?) IPA^(key): /d??o?v/ (Used in some regions of the US, particularly the Midwest)

Etymology 1

From Middle English drove, drof, draf, from Old English dr?f (“action of driving; a driving out, expulsion; drove, herd, band; company, band; road along which cattle are driven”), from Proto-Germanic *draib? (“a drive, push, movement, drove”), from Proto-Indo-European *d?reyb?- (“to drive, push”), from Proto-Indo-European *d?er- (“to support”). Cognate with Scots drave, dreef (“drove, crowd”), Dutch dreef (“a walkway, wide road with trees, drove”), Middle High German treip (“a drove”), Swedish drev (“a drive, drove”), Icelandic dreif (“a scattering, distribution”). More at drive.

Noun

drove (plural droves)

1. A number of cattle driven to market or new pastures.
2. (usually in the plural) A large number of people on the move (literally or figuratively).
3. (collective) A group of hares.
4. A road or track along which cattle are habitually driven.
5. A narrow drain or channel used in the irrigation of land.
6. A broad chisel used to bring stone to a nearly smooth surface.
7. The grooved surface of stone finished by the drove chisel.

Derived terms

• in droves

Translations

Etymology 2

From earlier drave, from Middle English drave, draf, from Old English dr?f, first and third person singular indicative preterite of dr?fan (“to drive”).

Verb

drove

1. simple past tense of drive

drove (third-person singular simple present droves, present participle droving, simple past and past participle droved)

1. To herd cattle; particularly over a long distance.
2. (transitive) To finish (stone) with a drove chisel.

Translations

References

Anagrams

• Devor, Dover, Dovre, Voder, roved, vedro, vored

Middle English

Adjective

drove

1. Alternative form of drof