flock

Meanings

Noun

• A number of birds together in a group, such as those gathered together for the purpose of migration.
• A large number of animals associated together in a group; commonly used of sheep, but also used for goats, farmed animals, and a wide variety of animals.
• Those served by a particular pastor or shepherd.herd/flock
• A large number of people.
• A religious congregation.
• Coarse tufts of wool or cotton used in bedding.
• A lock of wool or hair.
• 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

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

Related

Similar words

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

Origin

• From Middle English flok, from Old English flocc ("flock, company, troop"), from Proto-Germanic *flukkaz, *flakka-. Cognate with Middle Low German vlocke ("crowd, flock"), Old Norse flokkr ("crowd, troop, band, flock"). Perhaps related to Old English folc ("crowd, troop, band"). More at folk.
• 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-, from Proto-Indo-European *plewk- ("hair, fibres, tuft"). Cognate with Old High German flocko ("down"), Middle Dutch vlocke ("flock"), Norwegian dialectal flugsa. Non-Germanic cognates include Albanian flokë ("hair").