FLOCK

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does flock mean? 

• FLOCK (noun)
  The noun FLOCK has 5 senses:

1. a church congregation guided by a pastor

2. a group of birds

3. (often followed by 'of') a large number or amount or extent

4. an orderly crowd

5. a group of sheep or goats

  Familiarity information: FLOCK used as a noun is common.

• FLOCK (verb)
  The verb FLOCK has 2 senses:

1. move as a crowd or in a group

2. come together as in a cluster or flock

  Familiarity information: FLOCK used as a verb is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• FLOCK (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A church congregation guided by a pastor

Classified under:

Nouns denoting groupings of people or objects

Hypernyms ("flock" is a kind of...):

congregation; faithful; fold (a group of people who adhere to a common faith and habitually attend a given church)

Sense 2

Meaning:

A group of birds

Classified under:

Nouns denoting groupings of people or objects

Hypernyms ("flock" is a kind of...):

animal group (a group of animals)

Meronyms (members of "flock"):

bird (warm-blooded egg-laying vertebrates characterized by feathers and forelimbs modified as wings)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "flock"):

bevy (a flock of birds (especially when gathered close together on the ground))

covert (a flock of coots)

covey (a small flock of grouse or partridge)

exaltation (a flock of larks (especially a flock of larks in flight overhead))

gaggle (a flock of geese)

wisp (a flock of snipe)

flight (a flock of flying birds)

Sense 3

Meaning:

(often followed by 'of') a large number or amount or extent

Classified under:

Nouns denoting quantities and units of measure

Synonyms:

batch; deal; flock; good deal; great deal; hatful; heap; lot; mass; mess; mickle; mint; mountain; muckle; passel; peck; pile; plenty; pot; quite a little; raft; sight; slew; spate; stack; tidy sum; wad

Context example:

a wad of money

Hypernyms ("flock" is a kind of...):

large indefinite amount; large indefinite quantity (an indefinite quantity that is above the average in size or magnitude)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "flock"):

deluge; flood; inundation; torrent (an overwhelming number or amount)

haymow (a mass of hay piled up in a barn for preservation)

Sense 4

Meaning:

An orderly crowd

Classified under:

Nouns denoting groupings of people or objects

Synonyms:

flock; troop

Context example:

a troop of children

Hypernyms ("flock" is a kind of...):

crowd (a large number of things or people considered together)

Derivation:

flock (come together as in a cluster or flock)

flock (move as a crowd or in a group)

Sense 5

Meaning:

A group of sheep or goats

Classified under:

Nouns denoting groupings of people or objects

Synonyms:

flock; fold

Hypernyms ("flock" is a kind of...):

animal group (a group of animals)

Meronyms (members of "flock"):

sheep (woolly usually horned ruminant mammal related to the goat)

• FLOCK (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they flock    ... he / she / it flocks   
Past simple: flocked   
Past participle: flocked   
-ing form: flocking   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Move as a crowd or in a group

Classified under:

Verbs of walking, flying, swimming

Context example:

Tourists flocked to the shrine where the statue was said to have shed tears

Hypernyms (to "flock" is one way to...):

go; locomote; move; travel (change location; move, travel, or proceed, also metaphorically)

Sentence frames:

Something is ----ing PP
Somebody ----s PP

Derivation:

flock (an orderly crowd)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Come together as in a cluster or flock

Classified under:

Verbs of walking, flying, swimming

Synonyms:

clump; cluster; constellate; flock

Context example:

The poets constellate in this town every summer

Hypernyms (to "flock" is one way to...):

assemble; foregather; forgather; gather; meet (collect in one place)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "flock"):

huddle; huddle together (crowd or draw together)

bunch; bunch together; bunch up (form into a bunch)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s
Something is ----ing PP
Somebody ----s PP

Sentence example:

The crowds flock in the streets

Derivation:

flock (an orderly crowd)

 Context examples 

"Here's a lovely flock of lambs all lying down," says Amy.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

“En avant, then!” cried Tranter shortly, and the whole assembly flocked out into the open air, save only those whom the special orders of their masters held to their posts.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

White Fang was to her a wolf, the hereditary marauder who had preyed upon her flocks from the time sheep were first herded and guarded by some dim ancestor of hers.

(White Fang, by Jack London)

The shepherd was willing, and got in, and the peasant shut the top down on him; then he took the shepherd’s flock for himself, and drove it away.

(Fairy Tales, by The Brothers Grimm)

Straightway a great flock of wild crows came flying toward her, enough to darken the sky.

(The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, by L. Frank Baum)

Next day, too, when we all go in a flock to see the house—our house—Dora's and mine—I am quite unable to regard myself as its master.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

There were but eight; yet, somehow, as they flocked in, they gave the impression of a much larger number.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

‘That white one with the barred tail, right in the middle of the flock.’

(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

EXAMPLE(S): flock of ducks, litter of mice, herd of cows

(Biologic Entity Group, NCI Thesaurus/BRIDG)

Who more gladly than we throughout the Four Nations received the 'bloody sword,' or at its warlike call flocked quicker to the standard of the King?

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)