flock

English

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /flɒk/
• (US) IPA^(key): /flɑk/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɒk

Etymology 1

From Middle English flok, from Old English flocc (“flock, company, troop”), from Proto-West Germanic *flokk, from Proto-Germanic *flukkaz (“crowd, troop”). Cognate with Middle Low German vlocke (“crowd, flock”), Danish flok (“flock”), Swedish flock (“flock”), Norwegian flokk (“flock”), Faroese flokkur (“flock”), Icelandic flokkur (“flock, group”). Related also to Norman fliotchet (“flock, crowd”), from Old Norse. Perhaps related to Old English folc (“crowd, troop, band”). More at folk.

Noun

flock (plural flocks)

1. A number of birds together in a group, such as those gathered together for the purpose of migration.
2. A large number of animals associated together in a group; commonly used of sheep, but (dated) also used for goats, farmed animals, and a wide variety of animals.
   • 1886, Peter Christen Asbjørnsen, translated by H.L. Brækstad, Folk and Fairy Tales, page 170:

     He told his father, and said it would be just suitable work for him to run about fields and woods amongst the strawberry hills after a flock of hares, and now and then lie down and take a nap on some sunny hill.

3. Those served by a particular pastor or shepherd.herd/flock
   • 1864, Alfred Tennyson, “Aylmer’s Field”, in Enoch Arden, &c., London: Edward Moxon & Co., , →OCLC, page 83:

     But lapsed into so long a pause again / As half amazed, half frighted all his flock: [...]

   • 1995, Green Key Books, God's Word to the Nations (John 10:16)‎:

     I also have other sheep that are not from this pen. I must lead them. They, too, will respond to my voice. So they will be one flock with one shepherd.

4. A large number of people.

   Synonym: congregation

   • 1611, The Holy Bible,  (King James Version), London: Robert Barker, , →OCLC, 2 Maccabees 14:14:

     The heathen […] came to Nicanor by flocks.

5. (Christianity) A religious congregation.

   Synonym: congregation

Synonyms

(large number of people):

• bunch, gaggle, horde, host, legion, litter, nest, rabble, swarm, throng, wake

Derived terms

Translations

Verb

flock (third-person singular simple present flocks, present participle flocking, simple past and past participle flocked)

1. (intransitive) To congregate in or head towards a place in large numbers.

   People flocked to the cinema to see the new film.

   • 1697, Virgil, “(please specify the book number)”, in John Dryden, transl., The Works of Virgil: Containing His Pastorals, Georgics, and Æneis. , London: Jacob Tonson, , →OCLC:

     What place the gods for our repose assigned.
     Friends daily flock; and scarce the kindly spring
     Began to clothe the ground

   • 2021 October 20, Mark Rand, “S&C: a line fit for tourists... and everyone?”, in RAIL, number 942, page 43:

     Given the poor state of the line's trains and schedules, it is remarkable that people flock to use or experience it in embarrassingly large numbers.

2. (transitive, obsolete) To flock to; to crowd.
   • 1609, John Taylor, Penniless Pilgrimage:

     Good fellows, trooping, flocked me so.

3. To treat a pool with chemicals to remove suspended particles.

Derived terms

Translations

Etymology 2

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 *plewk- (“hair, fibres, tuft”). Cognate with Old High German flocko (“down”), Middle Dutch vlocke (“flock”), Norwegian dialectal flugsa (“snowflake”). Non-Germanic cognates include Albanian flokë (“hair”).

Noun

flock (countable and uncountable, plural flocks)

1. Coarse tufts of wool or cotton used in bedding.
2. A lock of wool or hair.
   • c. 1597 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The First Part of Henry the Fourth, ”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies  (First Folio), London: Isaac Iaggard, and Ed Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, :

     I prythee, Tom, beat Cut's saddle, put a few flocks in the point.

3. Very fine sifted woollen refuse, especially that from shearing the nap of cloths, formerly used as a coating for wallpaper to give it a velvety or clothlike appearance; also, the dust of vegetable fibre used for a similar purpose.
   • 1913, Mrs. [Marie] Belloc Lowndes, chapter II, in The Lodger, London: Methuen, →OCLC; republished in Novels of Mystery: The Lodger; The Story of Ivy; What Really Happened, New York, N.Y.: Longmans, Green and Co., , , →OCLC, page 0091:

     There was a neat hat-and-umbrella stand, and the stranger's weary feet fell soft on a good, serviceable dark-red drugget, which matched in colour the flock-paper on the walls.

Translations

Verb

flock (third-person singular simple present flocks, present participle flocking, simple past and past participle flocked)

1. (transitive) To coat a surface with dense fibers or particles; especially, to create a dense arrangement of fibers with a desired nap.

   the sampling and elution advantages of flocked swabs versus spun swabs

2. To cover a Christmas tree with artificial snow.

Translations

Derived terms

• flocked

See also

• Appendix:English collective nouns

Swedish

Etymology

From Old Swedish flokker, flukker, from Old Norse flokkr, from Proto-Germanic *flukkaz. Cognate with Faroese flokkur, Icelandic flokkur, Norwegian flokk, and Danish flok.

Pronunciation

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Noun

flock c

1. flock; a group of people or animals
2. murder of crows

Declension

Related terms

• flockas