throng

English

Pronunciation

Etymology

From Middle English, from Old English þrang, ġeþrang (“crowd, press, tumult”), from Proto-Germanic *þrangwan, *þrangwō (“throng”), *þrangwaz (“push, drive”), from Proto-Indo-European *trenk(w)- (“to beat, hew, press”). Cognate with Dutch drang (“urge, push, impulse”), German Drang (“urge, drive, impulse”), Danish trang (“urge”), Norwegian trong (“need”), Icelandic þröng (“narrow, tightly pressed, crowd, throng”). Probably related to Albanian drojë (“fear, fear of the crowd”) and to drang (“huge rod, pole, oar”). More at thring.

Noun

throng (plural throngs)

A group of people crowded or gathered closely together; a multitude.
- 1905, Baroness Emmuska Orczy, chapter 2, The Affair at the Novelty Theatre^[1]:
  Miss Phyllis Morgan, as the hapless heroine dressed in the shabbiest of clothes, appears in the midst of a gay and giddy throng; she apostrophises all and sundry there, including the villain, and has a magnificent scene which always brings down the house, and nightly adds to her histrionic laurels.
A group of things; a host or swarm.

Translations

group of people

Armenian: ամբոխ (hy) (ambox), բազմություն (hy) (bazmut’yun)
Catalan: gent assai (Algherese)
Dutch: massa (nl),menigte (nl), drukte (nl) f
Finnish: ihmisjoukko (fi), väentungos, väkijoukko (fi)
French: essaim (fr) m
German: Menschengewühl (de) n, Gewühl (de) n
Irish: plód (ga) m, slua (ga) m, pulcadh (ga) m
Italian: calca (it) f
Portuguese: turba (pt) f
Russian: толпа (ru) (tolpá) f, толчея (ru) (tolčejá) f, куча (ru) (kúča) f

Sardinian:
Campidanese Sardinian: stibbu

Gallurese Sardinian: gjntória

Logudorese Sardinian: càtticu, lèrina, zentoriu
Sassarese Sardinian: attruppogliu
Spanish: muchedumbre (es) f, gentío (es) m
Swedish: trängsel (sv) c, mängd (sv) c
Ukrainian: натовп (uk) (nátovp) m
Volapük: menarunäd (vo)

group of things; host or swarm

Armenian: բազմություն (hy) (bazmut’yun)
Dutch: zwerm (nl)
Finnish: joukko (fi), lauma (fi)

French: essaim (fr) m
Russian: множество (ru) (mnóžestvo) n, масса (ru) (mássa) f, куча (ru) (kúča) f
Spanish: multitud (es) f, montón (es) m

Quotations

1885 — Gilbert & Sullivan, The Mikado
Perhaps you suppose this throng

Can't keep it up all day long?

Verb

throng (third-person singular simple present throngs, present participle thronging, simple past and past participle thronged)

(transitive) To crowd into a place, especially to fill it.
(intransitive) To congregate.
- Shakespeare
  I have seen the dumb men throng to see him.