Library / English Dictionary

SWARM

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 I. (noun) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

A group of many things in the air or on the ground

Example:

it discharged a cloud of spores

Synonyms:

cloud; swarm

Classified under:

Nouns denoting groupings of people or objects

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

group; grouping (any number of entities (members) considered as a unit)

Meronyms (members of "swarm"):

insect (small air-breathing arthropod)

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

infestation; plague (a swarm of insects that attack plants)

Derivation:

swarm (be teeming, be abuzz)

Sense 2

Meaning:

A moving crowd

Synonyms:

drove; horde; swarm

Classified under:

Nouns denoting groupings of people or objects

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

crowd (a large number of things or people considered together)

Derivation:

swarm (move in large numbers)

swarm (be teeming, be abuzz)

 II. (verb) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Move in large numbers

Example:

beggars pullulated in the plaza

Synonyms:

pour; pullulate; stream; swarm; teem

Classified under:

Verbs of walking, flying, swimming

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

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

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

pour out; spill out; spill over (be disgorged)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s PP

Sentence example:

The crowds swarm in the streets

Derivation:

swarm (a moving crowd)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Be teeming, be abuzz

Example:

her mind pullulated with worries

Synonyms:

pullulate; swarm; teem

Classified under:

Verbs of being, having, spatial relations

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

buzz; hum; seethe (be noisy with activity)

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

crawl (be full of)

Sentence frame:

Something is ----ing PP

Sentence example:

The streets swarm with crowds

Derivation:

swarm (a group of many things in the air or on the ground)

swarm (a moving crowd)

Credits

 Context examples: 

An angry lot of men, boat-pullers and steerers as well as hunters, swarmed over our side.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

Chasing an errant swarm of bees is nothing to following a naked lunatic, when the fit of escaping is upon him!

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

Like bees swarming after their queen, mother and daughters hovered about Mr. March the next day, neglecting everything to look at, wait upon, and listen to the new invalid, who was in a fair way to be killed by kindness.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

The willow-wren with his army also came flying through the air with such a humming, and whirring, and swarming that every one was uneasy and afraid, and on both sides they advanced against each other.

(Fairy Tales, by The Brothers Grimm)

The center of our Milky Way galaxy is bustling with young and old stars, smaller black holes and other varieties of stellar corpses — all swarming around a supermassive black hole called Sagittarius A*.

(NASA's NuSTAR Captures Possible 'Screams' from Zombie Stars, NASA)

Amid the action and reaction of so dense a swarm of humanity, every possible combination of events may be expected to take place, and many a little problem will be presented which may be striking and bizarre without being criminal.

(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Called ram pressure stripping, the process occurs when a galaxy, due to the pull of gravity, falls toward the dense center of a massive cluster of thousands of galaxies, which swarm around like a hive of bees.

(Hubble Sees Plunging Galaxy Losing Its Gas, NASA)

The results of this unique test disfavor that hypothesis, because light fluctuations from the background star, monitored with Hubble for 13 years, would have looked different if there were a swarm of intervening black holes.

(Hubble Uncovers the Farthest Star Ever Seen, NASA)

I could have screamed aloud; I sought with tears and prayers to smother down the crowd of hideous images and sounds with which my memory swarmed against me; and still, between the petitions, the ugly face of my iniquity stared into my soul.

(The Strange Case Of Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

They went across divides in summer blizzards, shivered under the midnight sun on naked mountains between the timber line and the eternal snows, dropped into summer valleys amid swarming gnats and flies, and in the shadows of glaciers picked strawberries and flowers as ripe and fair as any the Southland could boast.

(The Call of the Wild, by Jack London)