Word Direct Answers

What does "swarm" mean?

Swarm: A large number or mass of small animals or insects, especially when in motion. "A deadly swarm of hornets." Milton.

Additional senses

  1. 2.Especially, a great number of honeybees which emigrate from a hive at once, and seek new lodgings under the direction of a queen; a like body of bees settled permanently in a hive. "A swarm of bees." Chaucer.
  2. 3.Hence, any great nimber or multitude, as of people in motion, or sometimes of inanimate objects; as, a swarm of meteorites. Those prodigious swarms that had settled themselves in every part of it [Italy]. Addison.
  3. 4.To collect, and depart from a hive by flight in a body; -- said of bees; as, bees swarm in warm, clear days in summer.
  4. 5.To appear or collect in a crowd; to throng together; to congregate in a multitude. Chaucer.
  5. 6.To be crowded; to be thronged with a multitude of beings in motion. Every place swarms with soldiers. Spenser.
  6. 7.To abound; to be filled (with). Atterbury.
  7. 8.To breed multitudes. Not so thick swarmed once the soil Bedropped with blood of Gorgon. Milton.
  8. 9.To crowd or throng. Fanshawe.

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