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herd

Pronunciation: /hɜːd/

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

noun

  1. A number of domestic animals assembled together under the watch or ownership of a keeper.
  2. Any collection of animals gathered or travelling in a company.
  3. A crowd, a mass of people or things; a rabble.
  4. A collection of things, especially vehicles.
  5. Someone who keeps a group of domestic animals.

verb

  1. To unite or associate in a herd; to feed or run together, or in company.
  2. To unite or associate in a herd
  3. To manage, care for or guard a herd
  4. To associate; to ally oneself with, or place oneself among, a group or company.
  5. To move, or be moved, in a group. (of both animals and people)
  6. To act as a herdsman or a shepherd.
  7. To form or put into a herd.
  8. To move or drive a herd.

Etymology

From Middle English herde, heerde, heorde, from Old English hierd, heord (“herd, flock; keeping, care, custody”), from Proto-West Germanic *herdu, from Proto-Germanic *herdō (“herd”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)kerdʰ- (“file, row, herd”). Cognate with German Herde, Danish hjord, Swedish hjord. Non-Germanic cognates include Albanian herdhe (“nest”) and Serbo-Croatian krdo.

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