flock

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“
As long as the flock are here, amidst dangers and foes, and wild weather, the arm that guides must be an arm that can guard; and none less mighty than the Mighty One of Jacob can be the Shepherd of men.

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Definitions (40)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (12)

  1. noun A group of animals that live, travel, or feed together.
  2. noun A group of people under the leadership of one person, especially the members of a church.
  3. noun A large crowd or number: had a flock of questions.
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Toggle Century definitions Century Dictionary (16)

Toggle GNU Webster definitions GNU Webster's 1913 (5)

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Examples (50)

  • Mother used to pick her geese in the barn where Father used to shear the sheep; and to help gather in the flock was a part of my duty also. —  My Boyhood
  • The intelligence which has converted the brother of the wolf into the faithful guardian of the flock ought to be able to do something towards curbing the instincts of savagery in civilized men. —  Thomas Henry Huxley
  • In the end we had a cozy space, and the flock was asleep within ten minutes. —  Maximum Ride: The Angel Experiment
  • One of the leading families of his flock was the “Arnold family,” whose garden and grounds were then among the finest in the State and at whose house such men as Richard H. Dana, the poet, the late Professor Agassiz, and others eminent for their literary and scientific attainments, were often to be seen. —  The Life and Letters of Elizabeth Prentiss
  • A member of the flock was a rarity, but which was it?
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Roget's II Roget's II: The New Thesaurus

Allen's Allen's Synonyms and Antonyms

Used in the same context Used in the Same Context

herd ·  sheep ·  cattle ·  swarm ·  multitude ·  bird ·  bunch ·  horde ·  pair ·  congregation ·  tribe ·  throng

Used in the same contextWord Family

flock:   flocks ·  flocked ·  flocking
Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary. Copyright © 2003, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Etymologies (8)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (2)

  1. Middle English flok, from Old English floc.
  2. Middle English flok, from Old French floc, from Latin floccus, tuft of wool.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (6)

  1. from Middle English flock, flokk, flok, floc, a company or band (of men), a flock or herd (of deer, swine, sheep, birds), from Anglo-Saxon floc, flocc, a company or band (of persons—not used of beasts or birds), = Middle Low German vlocke (in sense 2) = Icelandic flokkr, a company or band (of persons), = Swedish flock, a crowd, a collection, = Danish flok, a flock (in all the English uses). Other connections unknown; as the special reference to birds is modern, the supposed relation to fly, Anglo-Saxon fleógan, etc., will not hold.
  2. from Middle English flocken. flogken = Swedish (reflexive) flocka = Danish flokke, gather in a flock; from the noun.
  3. from Middle English flocke, flokke, a flock (of wool, etc.), a flake (of snow), = Middle Dutch vlocke, Dutch vlok, a flock, flake, tuft, = Middle Low German vlocke, a flock (of wool, etc.), a flake (of snow), Low German flok, flokke, flog, flock, flake, = Old High German floccho, Middle High German vlocke, German flocke, flock, flake, = Swedish flocka = Danish flokke, flok, flock, = Icelandic flōki, felt, hair, wool, etc. (the Swedish and Danish forms are prob. borrowed from Low German; the Icelandic form does not quite agree with the others). Cf. Latin floccus, a lock or flock of wool, on clothes, in fruits, etc., anything of slight value (flocci non facere, care not a straw for, flocci pendere, value at a hair: see floccipend), later Old French floc, French floc, floche, also flocon, a flock of wool, etc., flake, mote, = Provencal floc = Portuguese froco, flock, = Italian fiocco, flock, flake, tassel. The relation of the Teutonic forms to the L. is uncertain. Cf. flake.
  4. from flock, n.
  5. English dial., another form of flake.
  6. Origin obscure; possibly associated with flock (cf. floccipend).
 

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