bevy

From Middle English bevey, of uncertain origin, possibly Anglo-Norman.

• IPA^(key): /ˈbɛvi/

• Audio (General Australian):

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• Homophone: bevvy

bevy (plural bevies)

1. (collective) A group of animals, in particular quail.
   • 1980, AA Book of British Villages, Drive Publications Ltd, page 217:

     The pond was another favourite place to visit. Moorhens strutted from the neighbouring bushes, and a bevy of Muscovy ducks, a study in black, white and red, waddled from the farmyard hard by to enjoy a refreshing splash.

2. (collective) A small group of persons, especially of girls and women.
   • 1755, Adam Fitz-Adam, The World, number CXXI, London, page 789:

     In the midſt of all this buſtle, I was ſtruck with the appearance of a large bevy of beauties and women of the firſt fashion, who with all the perfect confidence of good breeding, inſhrined themſelves in the ſeveral temples dedicated to the Cyprian Venus

   • 1849, Thomas Babington Macaulay, The History of England from the Accession of James II, volume II, London: Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans, →OCLC, page 365:

     The same messenger who summoned the whole bevy of renegades, Dover, Peterborough, Murray, Sunderland, and Mulgrave, could just as easily have summoned Clarendon.

   • 1891, Thomas Hardy, Tess of the d’Urbervilles: A Pure Woman Faithfully Presented  In Three Volumes">…], volume I, London: James R Osgood, McIlvaine and Co., , →OCLC, phase the first (The Maiden), pages 22–23:

     The two elder of the brothers were plainly not intending to linger more than a moment, but the spectacle of a bevy of girls dancing without male partners seemed to amuse the third, and make him in no hurry to move on.

   • 2013 June 7, David Simpson, “Fantasy of navigation”, in The Guardian Weekly‎, volume 188, number 26, page 36:

     For every dedicated scientist patiently recording atmospheric pressure and wind speed while shivering at high altitudes, there is a carnival barker with a bevy of pretty girls willing to dangle from a basket or parachute down to earth.

3. (collective) A large group or collection.
   • 2017 January 12, Brian Fung, “Why AT&T’s top execs visited Trump Tower”, in The Washington Post‎:

     Thursday's session makes AT&T the latest high-profile company to meet with Trump after the president-elect's series of job-related talks with firms such as Softbank, Carrier and a bevy of tech companies including Google, Facebook and Apple.

• William Dwight Whitney, Benjamin E Smith, editors (1911), “bevy”, in The Century Dictionary , New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., →OCLC.