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Swarm vs Burst - What's the difference?

swarm | burst |

In intransitive terms the difference between swarm and burst

is that swarm is to teem, or be overrun with insects, people, etc while burst is to enter or exit hurriedly and unexpectedly.

In transitive terms the difference between swarm and burst

is that swarm is to overwhelm as by an opposing army while burst is to produce as an effect of bursting.

swarm

English

Noun

(en noun)
  • A large number of insects, especially when in motion or (for bees) migrating to a new colony.
  • * Milton
  • a deadly swarm of hornets
  • A mass of people, animals or things in motion or turmoil.
  • a swarm of meteorites
  • * Addison
  • those prodigious swarms that had settled themselves in every part of it [Italy]
  • (label) A group of nodes sharing the same torrent in a BitTorrent network.
  • Verb

    (en verb)
  • (lb) To move as a swarm .
  • *
  • *:There is an hour or two, after the passengers have embarked, which is disquieting and fussy. Mail bags, so I understand, are being put on board. Stewards, carrying cabin trunks, swarm in the corridors.
  • (lb) To teem, or be overrun with insects, people, etc.
  • *(Edmund Spenser) (c.1552–1599)
  • *:Every place swarms with soldiers.
  • (lb) To fill a place as a swarm .
  • (lb) To overwhelm as by an opposing army.
  • To climb by gripping with arms and legs alternately.
  • * (1748–1828)
  • *:At the top was placed a piece of money, as a prize for those who could swarm up and seize it.
  • *1919 , , (The Moon and Sixpence) ,
  • *:She called out, and a boy came running along. He swarmed up a tree, and presently threw down a ripe nut. Ata pierced a hole in it, and the doctor took a long, refreshing draught.
  • To breed multitudes.
  • *(John Milton) (1608-1674)
  • *:Not so thick swarmed once the soil / Bedropped with blood of Gorgon.
  • See also

    *

    Anagrams

    * (l) English collective nouns

    burst

    English

    (wikipedia burst)

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • An instance of, or the act of bursting .
  • The bursts of the bombs could be heard miles away.
  • A series of shots fired from an automatic firearm.
  • Derived terms

    * cloudburst

    Verb

  • To break from internal pressure.
  • * {{quote-book, year=1963, author=(Margery Allingham), title=(The China Governess)
  • , chapter=6 citation , passage=‘[…] I remember a lady coming to inspect St. Mary's Home where I was brought up and seeing us all in our lovely Elizabethan uniforms we were so proud of, and bursting into tears all over us because “it was wicked to dress us like charity children”. […]’.}}
  • To cause to break from internal pressure.
  • (obsolete) To cause to break by any means.
  • * Shakespeare
  • You will not pay for the glasses you have burst ?
  • * Fairfax
  • He burst his lance against the sand below.
  • To separate formfeed at perforation lines.
  • To enter or exit hurriedly and unexpectedly.
  • * 1856 : (Gustave Flaubert), (Madame Bovary), Part III Chapter X, translated by Eleanor Marx-Aveling
  • He entered Maromme shouting for the people of the inn, burst open the door with a thrust of his shoulder, made for a sack of oats, emptied a bottle of sweet cider into the manger, and again mounted his nag, whose feet struck fire as it dashed along.
  • * 1913 , (Mariano Azuela), The Underdogs, translated by E. MunguÍa, Jr.
  • Like hungry dogs who have sniffed their meat, the mob bursts in, trampling down the women who sought to bar the entrance with their bodies.
  • To produce as an effect of bursting.
  • to burst a hole through the wall

    Derived terms

    * burst forth * burst into flame * burst out * burst someone's bubble