Herd vs Flock - What's the difference?
herd | flock |
A number of domestic animals assembled together under the watch or ownership of a keeper.
* 1768, ,
Any collection of animals gathered or travelling in a company.
* 2007, J. Michael Fay, Ivory Wars: Last Stand in Zakouma , National Geographic (March 2007), 47,
A crowd, a mass of people; now usually pejorative: a rabble.
* Dryden
* Coleridge
To unite or associate in a herd; to feed or run together, or in company.
To associate; to ally one's self with, or place one's self among, a group or company.
Someone who keeps a group of domestic animals; a herdsman.
* 2000 , Alasdair Grey, The Book of Prefaces , Bloomsbury 2002, p. 38:
(Scotland) To act as a herdsman or a shepherd.
To form or put into a herd.
A large number of birds, especially those gathered together for the purpose of migration.
A large number of animals, especially sheep or goats kept together.
Those served by a particular pastor or shepherd.
* {{quote-book
, year=1995
, author=Green Key Books
, title=God's Word to the Nations (John 10:16)
* Tennyson
A large number of people.
* Bible, 2 Macc. xiv. 14
To congregate in or head towards a place in large numbers.
* Dryden
(obsolete) To flock to; to crowd.
* 1609 , Taylor
To treat a pool with chemicals to remove suspended particles.
Coarse tufts of wool or cotton used in bedding
A lock of wool or hair.
*(William Shakespeare) (c.1564–1616)
*:I prythee, Tom, beat Cut's saddle, put a few flocks in the point [pommel].
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.
*
*:There was a neat hat-and-umbrella stand, and the stranger's weary feet fell soft on a good, serviceable dark-red drugget, which matched in colour the flock -paper on the walls.
In intransitive terms the difference between herd and flock
is that herd is to associate; to ally one's self with, or place one's self among, a group or company while flock is to congregate in or head towards a place in large numbers.In transitive terms the difference between herd and flock
is that herd is to form or put into a herd while flock is to coat a surface with dense fibers or particles.herd
English
Etymology 1
From (etyl) herde, heerde, heorde, from (etyl) hierd, .Noun
(en noun)- The lowing herd wind slowly o’er the lea.
- Zakouma is the last place on Earth where you can see more than a thousand elephants on the move in a single, compact herd .
- But far more numerous was the herd of such / Who think too little and who talk too much.
- You can never interest the common herd in the abstract question.
Verb
(en verb)- Sheep herd on many hills.
- (rfdate) I’ll herd among his friends, and seem One of the number. Addison.
Etymology 2
(etyl) hirde, (hierde), from (etyl) . Cognate with German Hirte, Swedish herde, Danish hyrde.Noun
(en noun)- Any talent which gives a good new thing to others is a miracle, but commentators have thought it extra miraculous that England's first known poet was an illiterate herd .
Derived terms
* bearherd * cowherd * goatherd * gooseherd * hogherd * horseherd * neatherd * oxherd * swanherd * swineherd * vaxherdVerb
(en verb)- I heard the herd of cattle being herded home from a long way away.
See also
* * drove * gather * muster * round up * ride herd on English collective nouns ----flock
English
Etymology 1
From (etyl) . More at (l).Noun
(en noun)citation, passage=I also have other sheep that are not from this pen. I must lead them. They, too, will respond to my voice. So they will be one flock with one shepherd. }}
- As half amazed, half frighted all his flock .
- The heathen came to Nicanor by flocks .
Synonyms
* congregation, bunch, gaggle, horde, host, legion, litter, nest, rabble, swarm, throng, wakeVerb
(en verb)- People flocked to the cinema to see the new film.
- Friends daily flock .
- Good fellows, trooping, flocked me so.
