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Herd

//hɜːd// name, noun, verb

Definitions

Proper Noun
  1. 1
    A surname.
Noun
  1. 1
    A number of domestic animals assembled together under the watch or ownership of a keeper.

    "a herd of cattle"

  2. 2
    Someone who keeps a group of domestic animals. archaic

    "Near-synonym: herdsman"

  3. 3
    a group of cattle or sheep or other domestic mammals all of the same kind that are herded by humans wordnet
  4. 4
    Any collection of animals gathered or travelling in a company.

    "Zakouma is the last place on Earth where you can see more than a thousand elephants on the move in a single, compact herd."

  5. 5
    a group of wild mammals of one species that remain together: antelope or elephants or seals or whales or zebra wordnet
Show 2 more definitions
  1. 6
    A crowd, a mass of people or things; a rabble. derogatory, usually

    "I was never one to follow the herd."

  2. 7
    a crowd especially of ordinary or undistinguished persons or things wordnet
Verb
  1. 1
    To unite or associate in a herd; to feed or run together, or in company. intransitive

    "Sheep herd on many hills."

  2. 2
    To act as a herdsman or a shepherd. Scotland, intransitive
  3. 3
    move together, like a herd wordnet
  4. 4
    To unite or associate in a herd transitive
  5. 5
    To form or put into a herd. transitive
Show 6 more definitions
  1. 6
    cause to herd, drive, or crowd together wordnet
  2. 7
    To manage, care for or guard a herd transitive

    "He is employed to herd the goats."

  3. 8
    To move or drive a herd. transitive

    "I heard the herd of cattle being herded home from a long way away."

  4. 9
    keep, move, or drive animals wordnet
  5. 10
    To associate; to ally oneself with, or place oneself among, a group or company. intransitive

    "I’ll herd among his Friends, and ſeem One of the Number, […]"

  6. 11
    To move, or be moved, in a group. (of both animals and people)

    "On alighting at the station, we were all herded over the footbridge and through a side exit."

Etymology

Etymology 1

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.

Etymology 2

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.

Etymology 3

From Middle English herde, from Old English hirde, hierde, from Proto-West Germanic *hirdī, from Proto-Germanic *hirdijaz. Cognate with German Hirte, Swedish herde, Danish hyrde.

Etymology 4

From Middle English herde, from Old English hirde, hierde, from Proto-West Germanic *hirdī, from Proto-Germanic *hirdijaz. Cognate with German Hirte, Swedish herde, Danish hyrde.

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