\Crowd\ (kroud), v. t. [imp. & p. p. {Crowded}; p. pr. &
vb. n. {Crowding}.] [OE. crouden, cruden, AS. cr?dan; cf. D.
kruijen to push in a wheelbarrow.]
1. To push, to press, to shove. --Chaucer.
2. To press or drive together; to mass together. ``Crowd us
   and crush us.'' --Shak.
3. To fill by pressing or thronging together; hence, to
   encumber by excess of numbers or quantity.
         The balconies and verandas were crowded with
         spectators, anxious to behold their future
         sovereign.                            --Prescott.
4. To press by solicitation; to urge; to dun; hence, to treat
   discourteously or unreasonably. [Colloq.]
{To crowd out}, to press out; specifically, to prevent the
   publication of; as, the press of other matter crowded out
   the article.
{To crowd sail} (Naut.), to carry an extraordinary amount of
   sail, with a view to accelerate the speed of a vessel; to
   carry a press of sail.

\Crowd\, v. i.
1. To press together or collect in numbers; to swarm; to
   throng.
         The whole company crowded about the fire. --Addison.
         Images came crowding on his mind faster than he
         could put them into words.            --Macaulay.
2. To urge or press forward; to force one's self; as, a man
   crowds into a room.

\Crowd\, n. [AS. croda. See {Crowd}, v. t. ]
1. A number of things collected or closely pressed together;
   also, a number of things adjacent to each other.
         A crowd of islands.                   --Pope.
2. A number of persons congregated or collected into a close
   body without order; a throng.
         The crowd of Vanity Fair.             --Macaulay.
         Crowds that stream from yawning doors. --Tennyson.
3. The lower orders of people; the populace; the vulgar; the
   rabble; the mob.
         To fool the crowd with glorious lies. --Tennyson.
         He went not with the crowd to see a shrine.
                                               --Dryden.
Syn: Throng; multitude. See {Throng}.

\Crowd\, n. [W. crwth; akin to Gael. cruit. Perh. named
from its shape, and akin to Gr. kyrto`s curved, and E. curve.
Cf. {Rote}.]
An ancient instrument of music with six strings; a kind of
violin, being the oldest known stringed instrument played
with a bow. [Written also {croud}, {crowth}, {cruth}, and
{crwth}.]
      A lackey that . . . can warble upon a crowd a little.
                                               --B. Jonson.

\Crowd\, v. t.
To play on a crowd; to fiddle. [Obs.] ``Fiddlers, crowd on.''
--Massinger.