Library / English Dictionary

HERD

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 I. (noun) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

A group of cattle or sheep or other domestic mammals all of the same kind that are herded by humans

Classified under:

Nouns denoting groupings of people or objects

Hypernyms ("herd" is a kind of...):

animal group (a group of animals)

Meronyms (members of "herd"):

Bos taurus; cattle; cows; kine; oxen (domesticated bovine animals as a group regardless of sex or age)

sheep (woolly usually horned ruminant mammal related to the goat)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "herd"):

remuda (the herd of horses from which those to be used the next day are chosen)

Derivation:

herd (keep, move, or drive animals)

Sense 2

Meaning:

A group of wild mammals of one species that remain together: antelope or elephants or seals or whales or zebra

Classified under:

Nouns denoting groupings of people or objects

Hypernyms ("herd" is a kind of...):

animal group (a group of animals)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "herd"):

gam (a herd of whales)

Derivation:

herd (keep, move, or drive animals)

Sense 3

Meaning:

A crowd especially of ordinary or undistinguished persons or things

Example:

the children resembled a fairy herd

Synonyms:

herd; ruck

Classified under:

Nouns denoting groupings of people or objects

Hypernyms ("herd" is a kind of...):

concourse; multitude; throng (a large gathering of people)

Derivation:

herd (move together, like a herd)

herd (cause to herd, drive, or crowd together)

 II. (verb) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Move together, like a herd

Classified under:

Verbs of walking, flying, swimming

Hypernyms (to "herd" is one way to...):

crowd; crowd together (to gather together in large numbers)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s

Sentence example:

The crowds herd in the streets

Derivation:

herd (a crowd especially of ordinary or undistinguished persons or things)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Cause to herd, drive, or crowd together

Example:

We herded the children into a spare classroom

Synonyms:

crowd; herd

Classified under:

Verbs of walking, flying, swimming

Hypernyms (to "herd" is one way to...):

displace; move (cause to move or shift into a new position or place, both in a concrete and in an abstract sense)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "herd"):

overcrowd (cause to crowd together too much)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Somebody ----s somebody
Somebody ----s somebody PP
Somebody ----s something PP

Derivation:

herd (a crowd especially of ordinary or undistinguished persons or things)

herder (someone who drives a herd)

Sense 3

Meaning:

Keep, move, or drive animals

Example:

Who will be herding the cattle when the cowboy dies?

Classified under:

Verbs of being, having, spatial relations

Hypernyms (to "herd" is one way to...):

keep (raise)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "herd"):

wrangle (herd and care for)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something

Derivation:

herd (a group of cattle or sheep or other domestic mammals all of the same kind that are herded by humans)

herd (a group of wild mammals of one species that remain together: antelope or elephants or seals or whales or zebra)

herder (someone who drives a herd)

Credits

 Context examples: 

The cow-herd said: “All right,” and took it in his arms and carried it to the pasture, and set it among the grass.

(Fairy Tales, by The Brothers Grimm)

When I reflected on the work I had completed, no less a one than the creation of a sensitive and rational animal, I could not rank myself with the herd of common projectors.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

There is filling of granges, hewing of wood, malting of grain, and herding of sheep as much as heart could wish, and I the only son.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Besides, it was not the life of the herd, or of the young bulls, that was threatened.

(The Call of the Wild, by Jack London)

It is not my mission to listen to her before the vulgar herd either: I mean to have her all to myself.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

White Fang was to her a wolf, the hereditary marauder who had preyed upon her flocks from the time sheep were first herded and guarded by some dim ancestor of hers.

(White Fang, by Jack London)

The introduction of pumps to ferry water from deep under the Kalahari to its surface has provided sustenance for livestock and fostered increasing herd sizes.

(Sleeping sands of the Kalahari awaken after more than 10,000 years, NSF)

The improved survival rate allows infected buffalo to continue to spread TB within the herd.

(Treatment for parasitic worms helps animals survive infectious diseases--and spread them, NSF)

If the original hunting grounds of the Greenland Norse, around Disko Bay, were overexploited, they may have journeyed as far north as Smith Sound to find sufficient herds of walrus, said Barrett.

(Over-hunting walruses contributed to the collapse of Norse Greenland, University of Cambridge)

Other hypotheses include the idea that stripes may confuse predators, facilitate social interactions within the herd, and regulate body temperature.

(Zebra stripes may 'dazzle' pathogen-packing horse flies, Wikinews)