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Troop vs Herd - What's the difference?

troop | herd | Related terms |

As nouns the difference between troop and herd

is that troop is a collection of people; a company; a number; a multitude while herd is a number of domestic animals assembled together under the watch or ownership of a keeper.

As verbs the difference between troop and herd

is that troop is to move in numbers; to come or gather in crowds or troops while herd is to unite or associate in a herd; to feed or run together, or in company.

troop

English

Noun

(en noun)
  • A collection of people; a company; a number; a multitude.
  • * Shakespeare
  • That which should accompany old age — / As honour, love, obedience, troops of friends — / I must not look to have.
  • (military) A small unit of cavalry or armour commanded by a captain, corresponding to a platoon or company of infantry.
  • A detachment of soldiers or police, especially horse artillery, armour, or state troopers.
  • Soldiers, military forces (usually "troops").
  • * Shakespeare
  • Farewell the plumed troop , and the big wars.
  • * Macaulay
  • His troops moved to victory with the precision of machines.
  • (nonstandard) A company of stageplayers; a troupe.
  • (label) A basic unit of girl or boy scouts, consisting of 6 to 10 youngsters.
  • A group of baboons.
  • A particular roll of the drum; a quick march.
  • (mycology) Mushrooms that are in a close group but not close enough to be called a cluster.
  • Derived terms

    * trooper * troopship * troop carrier

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To move in numbers; to come or gather in crowds or troops.
  • * , chapter=5
  • , title= The Mirror and the Lamp , passage=Then everybody once more knelt, and soon the blessing was pronounced. The choir and the clergy trooped out slowly, […], down the nave to the western door. […] At a seemingly immense distance the surpliced group stopped to say the last prayer.}}
  • To march on; to go forward in haste.
  • To move or march as if in a crowd.
  • Derived terms

    * troop the colour (qualifier)

    References

    * *

    See also

    *

    Anagrams

    * English collective nouns ----

    herd

    English

    Etymology 1

    From (etyl) herde, heerde, heorde, from (etyl) hierd, .

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • A number of domestic animals assembled together under the watch or ownership of a keeper.
  • * 1768, ,
  • The lowing herd wind slowly o’er the lea.
  • 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,
  • Zakouma is the last place on Earth where you can see more than a thousand elephants on the move in a single, compact herd .
  • A crowd, a mass of people; now usually pejorative: a rabble.
  • * Dryden
  • But far more numerous was the herd of such / Who think too little and who talk too much.
  • * Coleridge
  • You can never interest the common herd in the abstract question.

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To unite or associate in a herd; to feed or run together, or in company.
  • Sheep herd on many hills.
  • To associate; to ally one's self with, or place one's self among, a group or company.
  • (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)
  • Someone who keeps a group of domestic animals; a herdsman.
  • * 2000 , Alasdair Grey, The Book of Prefaces , Bloomsbury 2002, p. 38:
  • 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 * vaxherd

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • (Scotland) To act as a herdsman or a shepherd.
  • To form or put into a herd.
  • 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 ----