different between throng vs gathering

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

• IPA^(key): /??æ.ð?.???/

Etymology 1

From Middle English gadering, from Old English gaderung (“gathering, assembly”), equivalent to gather +? -ing (verbal noun ending).

Noun

gathering (plural gatherings)

1. A meeting or get-together; a party or social function.

2. A group of people or things.

3. (bookbinding) A section, a group of bifolios, or sheets of paper, stacked together and folded in half.

4. A charitable contribution; a collection.
5. (medicine) A tumor or boil suppurated or maturated; an abscess.

Translations

Further reading

• gathering on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• Section (bookbinding) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Etymology 2

From Middle English gaderynge, equivalent to gather +? -ing (present participle ending).

Verb

gathering

1. present participle of gather

Adjective

gathering (not comparable)

1. That gathers together

Derived terms

• data-gathering
• evidence-gathering

Anagrams

• nightgear