swarming

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“
Through the latticed boughs of the old plane trees--still naked on this last day of March--one glimpses the workmen's houses, upright in space, hazy and fantastic chessboards, with squares of light dabbed on in places, or like vertical cliffs in which our swarming is absorbed.

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Definitions (2)

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  1. The act of moving in a swarm, as bees from a hive.
  2. In botany, a method of reproduction observed in some of the Confervaceæ and Desmidiaceæ, in which the granules constituting the green matter become detached from one another and move about in their cells; then the external membrane swells and bursts, and the granules issue forth into the water to become new plants.

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Examples (50)

  • Beyond the massive wall archaeologists toil -- swarming, pick and brush, over a cityscape of towers and walls stretching into underground distance. —  F ;SF; - vol 099 issue 04-05 - October-November 2000
  • This prolific swarming, all these bodies, close-pressed and soft with sweat, give forth as it were a breath of fornication which melts the will. —  Saint Augustin
  • They were mobbed at the lock, the kids who'd been away all term swarming over them, babbling loudly. —  AnalogSFF,May2006
  • Prior to swarming, the locusts undergo a series of dramatic physical changes - their body colour darkens and their muscles grow stronger. —  BBC News | News Front Page | World Edition
  • The only change they found was that when the insects were swarming, they had about three times more serotonin in their systems than when they were living as solitary creatures. —  - Latest Popular Stories, Instablogs Community
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