Swarm vs Shoal - What's the difference?
swarm | shoal | Related terms |
A large number of insects, especially when in motion or (for bees) migrating to a new colony.
* Milton
A mass of people, animals or things in motion or turmoil.
* Addison
(label) A group of nodes sharing the same torrent in a BitTorrent network.
(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.
Shallow.
* 1819 , Lord Byron, Don Juan , III.19:
A sandbank or sandbar creating a shallow.
*
, title= * Dryden
A shallow in a body of water.
* Mortimer
* Shakespeare
To arrive at a shallow (or less deep) area.
To cause a shallowing; to come to a more shallow part of.
To become shallow.
Any large number of persons or things.
* Francis Bacon
A large number of fish (or other sea creatures) of the same species swimming together.
* Waller
As nouns the difference between swarm and shoal
is that swarm is a large number of insects, especially when in motion or (for bees) migrating to a new colony while shoal is a sandbank or sandbar creating a shallow.As verbs the difference between swarm and shoal
is that swarm is to move as a swarm while shoal is to arrive at a shallow (or less deep) area.As an adjective shoal is
shallow.swarm
English
Noun
(en noun)- a deadly swarm of hornets
- a swarm of meteorites
- those prodigious swarms that had settled themselves in every part of it [Italy]
Verb
(en verb)See also
*Anagrams
* (l) English collective nounsshoal
English
Etymology 1
From (etyl) schold, scholde, from (etyl) . Compare (shallow).Alternative forms
* (l) (dialectal) * (l), (l), (l), (l), (l), (l) (Scotland) * (l), (l), (l)Adjective
(en adjective)- shoal water
- But that part of the coast being shoal and bare, / And rough with reefs which ran out many a mile, / His port lay on the other side o' the isle.
Noun
(en noun)Mr. Pratt's Patients, chapter=1 , passage='Twas early June, the new grass was flourishing everywheres, the posies in the yard—peonies and such—in full bloom, the sun was shining, and the water of the bay was blue, with light green streaks where the shoal showed.}}
- The god himself with ready trident stands, / And opes the deep, and spreads the moving sands, / Then heaves them off the shoals .
- The depth of your pond should be six feet; and on the sides some shoals for the fish to lay their spawn.
- Wolsey, that once trod the ways of glory, / And sounded all the depths and shoals of honour.
Synonyms
* (sandbank) sandbar, sandbankVerb
(en verb)- A ship shoals her water by advancing into that which is less deep. — Marryat.
- The colour of the water shows where it shoals .
Etymology 2
1570, presumably from (etyl) *.Noun
(en noun)- great shoals of people
- Beneath, a shoal of silver fishes glides.
