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flock

Pronunciation: /flɒk/

The English word “flock” has 13 meanings listed here.

noun

  1. A large number of animals associated together in a group; commonly used of sheep, but (dated) also used for goats or other livestock animals, or sometimes any group of animals.
  2. The group of sheep being watched by one shepherd.
  3. A large number of people.
  4. Those served by a particular pastor or shepherd.
  5. A religious congregation.
  6. Coarse tufts of wool or cotton used in bedding.
  7. A lock of wool or hair.
  8. 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.

verb

  1. To congregate in or head towards a place in large numbers.
  2. To flock to; to crowd.
  3. To coat a surface with dense fibers or particles; especially, to create a dense arrangement of fibers with a desired nap.
  4. To cover a Christmas tree with artificial snow.
  5. To treat a pool with chemicals to remove suspended particles.

Etymology

From Middle English flok, from Old English flocc (“flock, company, troop”), from Proto-West Germanic *flokk, from Proto-Germanic *flukkaz (“crowd, troop”). Cognate with German Low German Flock (“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”),…

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Definitions are from Wiktionary, extracted by Kaikki.org, and are available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.