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Definitions

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

  1. n. A group of animals that live, travel, or feed together.
  2. n. A group of people under the leadership of one person, especially the members of a church.
  3. n. A large crowd or number: had a flock of questions.
  4. v. To congregate or travel in a flock or crowd.
  5. n. A tuft, as of fiber or hair.
  6. n. Waste wool or cotton used for stuffing furniture and mattresses.
  7. n. An inferior grade of wool added to cloth for extra weight.
  8. n. Pulverized wool or felt that is applied to paper, cloth, or metal to produce a texture or pattern.
  9. n. See floccule.
  10. v. To stuff with waste wool or cotton.
  11. v. To texture or pattern with pulverized wool or felt.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

  1. n. A company or band (of persons). The word is now seldom used with reference to persons, except as in the ecclesiastical or religious sense (def. 3), which is a figurative use of sense 2.
  2. n. A company of animals, in modern use especially of sheep, goats, or birds. Among sportsmen it is applied especially to companies of wild ducks, geese, and shore-birds.
  3. n. Hence In Biblical and ecclesiastical use, a company of persons united in one church, under a leader called, by the same figure, the shepherd or pastor; a congregation, with regard to its minister.
  4. n. Synonyms Flock, Gaggle, Covey, Pack, Gang, Wisp, Bevy, Sedge, Brood. Flock is the popular term for birds of many sorts; it is applied by sportsmen especially to wild ducks, geese, and shore-birds. Herbert applies gaggle to geese; Colquhoun applies it to geese swimming; it is not used in the United States. Covey is applied to several kinds of birds, especially partridges and pinnated grouse. Pack is applied to the pinnated grouse in the late season when they go in “packs” or large flocks. Gang is applied to wild turkeys, wisp to snipe, bevy to quail, sedge to herons. Brood applies to the mother and her young till the latter are old enough for game.
  5. To gather in a flock, company, or crowd; go in a flock or crowd: as, birds of a feather flock together; the people flocked together in the market-place.
  6. To gather into a flock or company.
  7. To crowd.
  8. n. A lock or tuft of wool or hair.
  9. n. Finely powdered wool or cloth, used, when colored, for making flock-paper and also formerly as shoddy. See extract under flock-powder.
  10. n. The refuse of wool, or the shearings of woolen goods, or old cloth or rags torn or broken up by the machine called the devil, used for stuffing mattresses, upholstering furniture, etc.
  11. n. Same as flock-bed.
  12. n. plural Dregs; sediment; specks; motes.
  13. n. In chem., a loose light mass of any substance: usually applied only to such masses as they appear suspended in a solution.
  14. To cover with flock; distribute flock on (a prepared surface of cloth or paper). E. H. Knight. See flock, n., 2.
  15. n. A hurdle: same as flake.
  16. To flout; jeer.

Wiktionary

  1. n. A large number of birds, especially those gathered together for the purpose of migration.
  2. n. A large number of animals, especially sheep or goats kept together.
  3. n. Those served by a particular pastor or shepherd
  4. n. A large number of people
  5. v. transitive To congregate in or head towards a place in large numbers.
  6. v. To treat a pool with chemicals to remove suspended particles.
  7. n. Coarse tufts of wool or cotton used in bedding
  8. v. transitive To coat a surface with dense fibers or particles.

GNU Webster's 1913

  1. n. A company or collection of living creatures; -- especially applied to sheep and birds, rarely to persons or (except in the plural) to cattle and other large animals.
  2. n. A Christian church or congregation; considered in their relation to the pastor, or minister in charge.
  3. v. To gather in companies or crowds.
  4. v. obsolete To flock to; to crowd.
  5. n. A lock of wool or hair.
  6. n. Woolen or cotton refuse (sing. or pl.), old rags, etc., reduced to a degree of fineness by machinery, and used for stuffing unpholstered furniture.
  7. n. Very fine, sifted, woolen refuse, especially that from shearing the nap of cloths, used as a coating for wall paper to give it a velvety or clothlike appearance; also, the dust of vegetable fiber used for a similar purpose.
  8. v. To coat with flock, as wall paper; to roughen the surface of (as glass) so as to give an appearance of being covered with fine flock.

WordNet 3.0

  1. v. come together as in a cluster or flock
  2. n. a church congregation guided by a pastor
  3. n. a group of birds
  4. n. a group of sheep or goats
  5. n. an orderly crowd
  6. n. (often followed by `of') a large number or amount or extent
  7. v. move as a crowd or in a group

Etymologies

  1. From Middle English flok ("tuft of wool"), from Old French floc ("tuft of wool"), from Late Latin floccus ("tuft of wool"), probably from Frankish *flokko (“down, wool, flock”), from Proto-Germanic *flukkōn-, *flukkan-, *fluksōn- (“down, flock”), from Proto-Indo-European *plAwək- (“hair, fibres, tuft”). Cognate with Old High German flocko ("down"), Middle Dutch vlocke ("flock"), Norwegian dialectal flugsa ("snowflake"). Other cognate Albanian flokë ("hair"). (Wiktionary)
  2. Middle English flok, from Old English floc.Middle English flok, from Old French floc, from Latin floccus, tuft of wool. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)

Examples

  • “There appeared to be an unusual number of peacocks about the place, and I was making some remarks upon what I termed a flock of them, that were basking under a sunny wall, when”

    The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon

  • “I was making some remarks upon what I termed a flock of them, that were basking under a sunny wall, when I was gently corrected in my phraseology by Master Simon, who told me that, according to the most ancient and approved treatise on hunting, I must say a MUSTER of peacocks.”

    Old Christmas

  • “I was making some remarks upon what I termed a flock of them, that were basking under a sunny wall, when I was gently corrected in my phraseology by Master Simon, who told me that, according to the most ancient and approved treatise on hunting, I must say a _muster_ of peacocks.”

    Old Christmas From the Sketch Book of Washington Irving

  • “There appeared to be an unusual number of peacocks about the place, and I was making some remarks upon what I termed a flock of them that were basking under a sunny wall, when I was gently corrected in my phraseology by Master”

    The Sketch-Book of Geoffrey Crayon

  • “The shepherd of the flock is the shepherd of every sheep, and will take care that not one, even of the little ones, shall perish.”

    Commentary on the Whole Bible Volume III (Job to Song of Solomon)

  • “And people will again flock to it all, ready to rejig their social communications agenda, and spend their money on the new phone and all the apps.”

    Twitter, et al: redistributing the wealth

  • “So, it appears it would be illegal for me to restrain my dogs from bolting if a bird has fallen in the deeks and the flock is circling back.”

    What Are the Biggest Duck Blind Sins a Gun Dog Can Make?

  • “If you know where a flock is or know a good area, you should get in the woods before daylight and preferably be set up by daylight.”

    Turkey Hunting Basics

  • “I try to find where the flock is eating or roosting than just run at them and scater the flock.”

    Fall Turkey Strategies

  • “Meanwhile the beautiful hymns are written for the military and the religion, the flock is impressed and the money, oh how the money, just keeps flowing and flowing.”

    If North Korea is bad… « Antiwar.com Blog

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Lists

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Comments

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  • davidvkimball An AWESOME web browser. Nov 1, 2010

  • plethora Also a collective noun for sheep.
    Baa. Jul 9, 2008

  • arby See also flist. Jul 8, 2008

  • arby Also livejournal slang for "friends-lock".

    1. To lock an entry or journal to only be viewable by those on one's "friends list".
    2. An adjective describing such a locked entry. Jul 8, 2008

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‘flock’ has been looked up 3514 times, loved by 6 people, added to 36 lists, commented on 4 times, and has a Scrabble score of 14.