herd

Definition from Wiktionary, a free dictionary

Wikipedia

Contents 1 English 1.1 Etymology 1.2 Pronunciation 1.3 Noun 1.3.1 Usage notes 1.3.2 Translations 1.4 Verb 1.4.1 Translations 1.4.2 See also 2 Old High German 2.1 Etymology 2.2 Noun

[edit] English

[edit] Etymology

• Middle English herd, heord, Old English heord
• Middle English hirde, herde, heorde, Old English hirde, hyrde, heorde (person who herds)

[edit] Pronunciation

• enPR: hî(r)d, IPA: /hɜː(r)d/, SAMPA: /h3:(r)d/
•  Audio (US)^{help, file}

  Rhymes: -ɜː(r)d

• Homophones: heard

[edit] Noun

Wikipedia

herd (plural herds)

1. A number of beasts assembled together; as, a herd of horses, oxen, cattle, rabbits, camels, elephants, deer, or swine; a particular stock or family of cattle.
   • 1768, Thomas Gray, Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard,

     The lowing herd wind slowly o’er the lea.

   • 2007, J. Michael Fay, Ivory Wars: Last Stand in Zakouma, National Geographic (March 2007), 47,

     Zakouma is the last place on Earth where you can see more than a thousand elephants on the move in a single, compact herd.

2. A crowd of low people; a rabble.

   But far more numerous was the herd of such Who think too little and who talk too much. Dryden.

   You can never interest the common herd in the abstract question. Coleridge.

3. One who herds or assembles domestic animals; a herdsman; -- much used in composition; as, a shepherd; a goatherd, and the like.

[edit] Usage notes

Herd is distinguished from flock, as being chiefly applied to the larger animals. A number of cattle, when driven to market, is called a drove.

[edit] Translations

[edit] Verb

to herd (third-person singular simple present herds, present participle herding, simple past and past participle herded)

1. To unite or associate in a herd; to feed or run together, or in company; as, sheep herd on many hills.
2. To associate; to ally one's self with, or place one's self among, a group or company.

   I’ll herd among his friends, and seem One of the number. Addison.

3. To act as a herdsman or a shepherd.
4. To form or put into a herd.

   I heard the herd of cattle being herded home from a long way away.

[edit] Translations

[edit] See also

• Appendix:Collective nouns
• drove
• gather
• muster
• round up
• ride herd on

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[edit] Old High German

[edit] Etymology

West Germanic *hertha, whence also Old English heorþ

[edit] Noun

herd m

1. hearth