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Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
flock
I.noun
COLLOCATIONS FROM OTHER ENTRIES
a flock of birds (=a large number of birds together)
▪ Suddenly a flock of birds flew up into the sky.
flock of sheep (=a group of sheep)
tourists flock to a place (=visit it in large numbers)
▪ Tourists have flocked to the area ever since the TV series was filmed there.
COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
■ ADJECTIVE
great
▪ They stretched in great flocks wider than the whole of the Zoo.
▪ They had great flocks of sheep and goats as well, and they lived at their ease.
▪ They were like a great flock of gulls swooping to tear and gobble at their prey.
▪ Straight away a great flock of wild crows came flying towards her, enough to darken the sky.
large
▪ Sometimes in large flocks in autumn.
▪ A large flock of shearwaters was wheeling excitedly over a spot about half way between the whales and Hsu Fu.
▪ The larger the flock, the less time individual doves spend peeking and the more time sleeping.
▪ The second smallest duck of the region, slenderer than Teal and rarely occurring in such large flocks.
▪ In very cold weather much larger flocks appear.
▪ The problem, as they see it, is that the large flocks are having a serious impact on crops.
▪ Back at Folly Bridge the males are left in large all-male flocks.
▪ Gregarious; large flocks make remarkable roaring sound on surface of water when disturbed by birds of prey.
small
▪ Then a small flock of them.
▪ She said she has a small enough flock of sheep to be able to remember their names and personalities.
▪ In the foreground another smaller flock was taking off from the little lake on the south side.
▪ Perhaps her dang had had to split into smaller flocks, so that now there were not enough shepherds to go around.
▪ Tufted ducks bobbed, still in the small compact flocks of winter.
▪ A small flock of evening grosbeaks flew over, and at first light I heard chickadees and goldfinches.
▪ Often flies fast in small flocks.
PHRASES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
birds of a feather (flock together)
▪ He figured I had a hustle of my own going and that made us birds of a feather.
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
▪ a flock of geese
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ As a hermit living in a cave, he refused the flock of naked women sent to tempt him.
▪ But there were rabbits by the dozens, and flocks of chestnut-colored bantams.
▪ It's easy to spot flocks of geese as they migrate.
▪ Naturally the shepherds who had brought their flocks across must know the safest route.
▪ The clergy did not only minister word and sacraments; they also performed social roles for their flock.
▪ This was odd as it indicated that the winter flock had already scattered as separate pairs at this very early date.
▪ To complicate matters further, many of these shepherds were in agreement with their flocks.
II.verb
COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
■ NOUN
tourist
▪ The series became a huge success and tourists have flocked to the area ever since.
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ At Black Mountain, both teachers and students flocked to the most exciting classes.
▪ But tourists are not the only foreigners flocking to Penang.
▪ If the economy is such a mess, why are investors flocking in?
▪ Jackdaws flocked noisily at the back of the wood; only occasionally did their silhouettes show black against the sky.
▪ Schoolchildren flock to the malls and fast-food joints, looking for jobs as shop assistants and chefs.
▪ They began to sell their land and, in a final bid to avoid starvation, started to flock to Calcutta.
▪ When the algorithmic bats were run, they flocked like real bats.
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Flock

Flock \Flock\, v. i. [imp. & p. p. Flocked; p. pr. & vb. n. Flocking.] To gather in companies or crowds.

Friends daily flock.
--Dryden.

Flocking fowl (Zo["o]l.), the greater scaup duck.

Flock

Flock \Flock\, v. t. To flock to; to crowd. [Obs.]

Good fellows, trooping, flocked me so.
--Taylor (1609).

Flock

Flock \Flock\, v. t. To coat with flock, as wall paper; to roughen the surface of (as glass) so as to give an appearance of being covered with fine flock.

Flock

Flock \Flock\, n. [AS. flocc flock, company; akin to Icel. flokkr crowd, Sw. flock, Dan. flok; prob. orig. used of flows, and akin to E. fly. See Fly.]

  1. A company or collection of living creatures; -- especially applied to sheep and birds, rarely to persons or (except in the plural) to cattle and other large animals; as, a flock of ravenous fowl.
    --Milton.

    The heathen . . . came to Nicanor by flocks.
    --2 Macc. xiv. 14.

  2. A Christian church or congregation; considered in their relation to the pastor, or minister in charge.

    As half amazed, half frighted all his flock.
    --Tennyson.

Flock

Flock \Flock\, n. [OE. flokke; cf. D. vlok, G. flocke, OHG. floccho, Icel. fl[=o]ki, perh. akin to E. flicker, flacker, or cf. L. floccus, F. floc.]

  1. A lock of wool or hair.

    I prythee, Tom, beat Cut's saddle, put a few flocks in the point [pommel].
    --Shak.

  2. Woolen or cotton refuse (sing. or pl.), old rags, etc., reduced to a degree of fineness by machinery, and used for stuffing unpholstered furniture.

  3. Very fine, sifted, woolen refuse, especially that from shearing the nap of cloths, used as a coating for wall paper to give it a velvety or clothlike appearance; also, the dust of vegetable fiber used for a similar purpose.

    Flock bed, a bed filled with flocks or locks of coarse wool, or pieces of cloth cut up fine. ``Once a flock bed, but repaired with straw.''
    --Pope.

    Flock paper, paper coated with flock fixed with glue or size.

Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
flock

Old English flocc "a group of persons, company, troop," related to Old Norse flokkr "crowd, troop, band," Middle Low German vlocke "crowd, flock (of sheep);" of unknown origin, not found in other Germanic languages; perhaps related to folc "people," but the metathesis would have been unusual for Old English.\n

\nIn Old English of humans only; extended c.1200 to "a number of animals of one kind moving or feeding together;" of domestic animals c.1300. The special reference to birds is recent (19c.). Transferred to bodies of Christians, in relation to Christ or their pastor, from mid-14c.

flock

"tuft of wool," mid-13c., also found in continental Germanic and Scandinavian, all probably from Old French floc, from Latin floccus "flock of wool, lock of hair."

flock

c.1300 "gather, congregate" (intransitive), from flock (n.1). Related: Flocked; flocking.

Wiktionary
flock

Etymology 1 n. 1 A large number of birds, especially those gathered together for the purpose of migration. 2 A large number of animals, especially sheep or goats kept together. 3 Those served by a particular pastor or shepherd. vb. 1 (context intransitive English) To congregate in or head towards a place in large numbers. 2 (context transitive obsolete English) To flock to; to crowd. 3 To treat a pool with chemicals to remove suspended particles. Etymology 2

n. 1 Coarse tufts of wool or cotton used in bedding 2 A lock of wool or hair. 3 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. vb. (context transitive English) To coat a surface with dense fibers or particles.

WordNet
flock
  1. n. a church congregation guided by a pastor

  2. a group of birds

  3. (often followed by `of') a large number or amount or extent; "a batch of letters"; "a deal of trouble"; "a lot of money"; "he made a mint on the stock market"; "it must have cost plenty" [syn: batch, deal, good deal, great deal, hatful, heap, lot, mass, mess, mickle, mint, muckle, peck, pile, plenty, pot, quite a little, raft, sight, slew, spate, stack, tidy sum, wad, whole lot, whole slew]

  4. an orderly crowd; "a troop of children" [syn: troop]

  5. a group of sheep or goats

  6. v. move as a crowd or in a group; "Tourists flocked to the shrine where the statue was said to have shed tears"

  7. come together as in a cluster or flock; "The poets constellate in this town every summer" [syn: cluster, constellate, clump]

Gazetteer
Wikipedia
Flock

A large number of animals, especially birds, sheep or goats.

Flock or flocking may refer to:

Flock (web browser)

Flock is a discontinued web browser that specialized in providing social networking and Web 2.0 facilities built into its user interface. Earlier versions of Flock used the Gecko HTML rendering engine by Mozilla. Version 2.6.2, released on January 27, 2011, was the last version based on Mozilla Firefox. Starting with version 3, Flock was based on Chromium and so used the WebKit rendering engine. Flock was available as a free download, and supported Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X and, at one time, Linux as well.

Support for Flock was discontinued in April 2011.

Flock (sculpture)

Michael Christian's Flock is a 42-foot sculpture made of welded steel. First seen at Burning Man in 2001, it was donated in November 2005 to the city of San Francisco by the Black Rock Arts Foundation as a temporary installation displayed until mid-February 2006.

Flock (messaging service)

Flock is a free instant messaging service for work and business environments that speeds up and simplifies communication within teams and organizations. It is available for free for an unlimited number of users on Windows Desktop, Mac, Chrome, iPhone, Android and Windows Phone.

Flock (album)

Flock is the third studio album by Irish band Bell X1. It was released on 14 October 2005 in Ireland, 20 March 2006 in the UK and February 19, 2008 in North America. The album was ranked #15 in Planet Sound's top albums of 2006. Flock was Bell X1's first ever #1 album in Ireland.

Three singles were released from the album in Ireland, " Bigger Than Me" (30 September 2005 in Ireland and 10 October 2005 in the UK), " Flame" (16 March 2006) and " Rocky Took a Lover", which was eventually released on 28 August 2006 after gaining cult popularity from radio airplay.

Flock (birds)

A flock is a group of birds conducting flocking behavior in flight, or while foraging. The term is akin to the herd amongst mammals. The benefits of aggregating in flocks are varied and flocks will form explicitly for specific purposes. Flocking also has costs, particularly to socially subordinate birds, which are bullied by more dominant birds; birds may also sacrifice feeding efficiency in a flock in order to gain other benefits. The principal benefits are safety in numbers and increased foraging efficiency. Defense against predators is particularly important in closed habitats such as forests where predation is often by ambush and early warning provided by multiple eyes is important, this has led to the development of many mixed-species feeding flocks. These multi-species flocks are usually composed of small numbers of many species, increasing the benefits of numbers but also increasing potential competition for resources.

Group size is a major aspect of the social environment of gregarious animals. However, one has to be careful when using group size measures to characterize animal sociality, because average individuals live in groups larger than mean group size.

Usage examples of "flock".

Although the masses will flock to the Plan of Abraxas, those wielding power and money will not easily give up their privileges for the good of society.

There was a sight of folks there, gentlemen and ladies in the public room--I never seed so many afore except at commencement day--all ready for a start, and when the gong sounded, off we sot like a flock of sheep.

Again, is it not the agriculturist who fattens, for our clothes, his abundant flocks in the pastures?

Now and then a much larger flock comes down into the plain, wheeling to and fro, and presently descending upon an arable field, where they cover the ground.

One afternoon there rose up a flock of rooks out of a large oak tree standing separate in the midst of an arable field which was then at last being ploughed.

The flock, without a shepherd, was assaulted by the power of the Portuguese, the arts of the Jesuits, and the zeal of Alexis de Menezes, archbishop of Goa, in his personal visitation of the coast of Malabar.

The westering sun touched each leaf and grass blade with molten gold, an aureate glow which seemed to fill the cool air like a tangible presence, and I could hear the chirp and chatter of the great bird flocks as they settled down in the trees.

The other members of the flock had forgiven him for the rancorous and sulky spirit which had made him refuse to catch in the ball-game against Hartford, in which Buck Badger had pitched, but they had not forgotten it.

Grey-headed kingfisher, pied hornbill, black-capped oriole, a flock of superb starlings which were just that, blue-collared, red breasted, green in the wings, and, best of all, a bateleur eagle, cruising beneath a perfectly unblemished blue sky, not soaring, just moving steadily forwards without, apparently, moving its wings.

The tower is naturally bescribbled to its top with the names of those who have climbed it, and most of these are Americans, who flock in great numbers to Canada in summer.

In the midst of this chaos, a mangy sheepdog galloped over the fells toward them, a flock of bleating sheep following behind.

In his fourteenth year, he became a shepherd and tended his first flock at Boghead, parish of Auchinleck, Ayrshire, in the immediate vicinity of Airsmoss, the scene of the skirmish, in 1680, between a body of the soldiers of Charles II.

It was too far back to the bothy to fetch it, so we huddled down behind some rocks, and I spent the day shivering and listening to the old shepherd snuffling and sniveling until, at last, he rose and declared it time to gather the flock.

Samson, but Samson took one look at Buffo, big as a house and already half seas over, shepherding his flock into the circus with his customary deranged majesty and the air of one about to commit grievous bodily harm.

And a beam of past happiness streamed upon me, as the mind of a captive is illumined by dreams of flocks and herds and bygone joys of home!