What's the difference between
and
Enter two words to compare and contrast their definitions, origins, and synonyms to better understand how those words are related.

Mess vs Crowd - What's the difference?

mess | crowd | Related terms |

In obsolete terms the difference between mess and crowd

is that mess is mass; church service while crowd is a crwth, an Ancient Celtic plucked string instrument.

In intransitive terms the difference between mess and crowd

is that mess is to interfere while crowd is to press together or collect in numbers; to swarm; to throng.

In transitive terms the difference between mess and crowd

is that mess is to throw into confusion while crowd is to press by solicitation; to urge; to dun; hence, to treat discourteously or unreasonably.

mess

English

Etymology 1

From (etyl) (m), partly from (etyl) . More at (m); see also (m).

Noun

(es)
  • (obsolete) Mass; church service.
  • A quantity of food set on a table at one time; provision of food for a person or party for one meal; also, the food given to an animal at one time.
  • A mess of pottage.
  • * Milton
  • At their savoury dinner set / Of herbs and other country messes .
  • A number of persons who eat together, and for whom food is prepared in common; especially, persons in the military or naval service who eat at the same table.
  • the wardroom mess
  • * 1610 , , IV. iv. 11:
  • But that our feasts / In every mess have folly, and the feeders / Digest it with accustom,
  • A set of four (from the old practice of dividing companies into sets of four at dinner).
  • (Latimer)
  • (US) The milk given by a cow at one milking.
  • Derived terms
    * Eton mess * lose the number of one's mess * mess hall * mess up * Mills Mess

    Verb

  • (label) To take meals with a mess.
  • (label) To belong to a mess.
  • (label) To eat (with others).
  • (label) To supply with a mess.
  • Etymology 2

    Perhaps a corruption of (etyl) , compare (muss), or derived from Etymology 1 "mixed foods, as for animals".

    Noun

    (-)
  • A disagreeable mixture or confusion of things; hence, a situation resulting from blundering or from misunderstanding; a disorder.
  • (label) A large quantity or number.
  • (label) Excrement.
  • Synonyms
    * see also

    Verb

    (es)
  • (label) To make a mess of.
  • (label) To throw into confusion.
  • (label) To interfere.
  • Derived terms
    (terms derived from "mess") * messy * mess around * mess up * mess with

    References

    *

    Anagrams

    * ----

    crowd

    English

    Etymology 1

    From (etyl) . Cognate with Dutch kruien.

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To press forward; to advance by pushing.
  • The man crowded into the packed room.
  • To press together or collect in numbers; to swarm; to throng.
  • They crowded through the archway and into the park.
  • * Addison:
  • The whole company crowded about the fire.
  • * Macaulay:
  • Images came crowding on his mind faster than he could put them into words.
  • To press or drive together, especially into a small space; to cram.
  • He tried to crowd too many cows into the cow-pen.
  • * Shakespeare
  • Crowd us and crush us.
  • To fill by pressing or thronging together.
  • * Prescott
  • The balconies and verandas were crowded with spectators, anxious to behold their future sovereign.
  • To push, to press, to shove.
  • tried to crowd her off the sidewalk
  • * 2006 , Lanna Nakone, Every Child Has a Thinking Style (ISBN 0399532463), page 73:
  • Alexis's mementos and numerous dance trophies were starting to crowd her out of her little bedroom.
  • (nautical) To approach another ship too closely when it has right of way.
  • To carry excessive sail in the hope of moving faster.
  • To press by solicitation; to urge; to dun; hence, to treat discourteously or unreasonably.
  • Derived terms
    * crowd control * crowd manipulation * crowd out * crowd psychology * crowd sail

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • A group of people congregated or collected into a close body without order.
  • :
  • *
  • *:Athelstan Arundel walked homeHe walked the whole way, walking through crowds , and under the noses of dray-horses, carriage-horses, and cart-horses, without taking the least notice of them.
  • *
  • *:He tried to persuade Cicely to stay away from the ball-room for a fourth dance.she found her mother standing up before the seat on which she had sat all the evening searching anxiously for her with her eyes, and her father by her side.
  • Several things collected or closely pressed together; also, some things adjacent to each other.
  • :
  • (lb) The so-called lower orders of people; the populace, vulgar.
  • * (1809-1892)
  • *:To fool the crowd with glorious lies.
  • *(John Dryden) (1631-1700)
  • *:He went not with the crowd to see a shrine.
  • A group of people united or at least characterised by a common interest.
  • :
  • Synonyms
    * (group of things) aggregation, cluster, group, mass * (group of people) audience, group, multitude, public, swarm, throng * (the "lower orders" of people) everyone, general public, masses, rabble, mob, unwashed
    Derived terms
    * crowd catch * crowd-pleaser * crowd-puller * work the crowd

    Etymology 2

    Celtic, from Welsh crwth.

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • (obsolete) A crwth, an Ancient Celtic plucked string instrument.
  • * Ben Jonson
  • A lackey that can warble upon a crowd a little.
  • (now dialectal) A fiddle.
  • * 1819': wandering palmers, hedge-priests, Saxon minstrels, and Welsh bards, were muttering prayers, and extracting mistuned dirges from their harps, '''crowds , and rotes. — Walter Scott, ''Ivanhoe
  • * 1684': That keep their consciences in cases, / As fiddlers do with ' crowds and bases — Samuel Butler, "Hudibras"
  • Verb

    (en verb)
  • (obsolete) To play on a crowd; to fiddle.
  • * Massinger
  • Fiddlers, crowd on.

    References

    (Webster 1913)

    Anagrams

    *