herd (hûrd)
n.

1. 1. A group of cattle or other domestic animals of a single kind kept together for a specific purpose.
   2. A number of wild animals of one species that remain together as a group: a herd of elephants.
2. 1. A large number of people; a crowd: a herd of stranded passengers.
   2. The multitude of common people regarded as a mass: "It is the luxurious and dissipated who set the fashions which the herd so diligently follow" (Henry David Thoreau). See synonyms at flock¹.

v., herd·ed, herd·ing, herds.

v.intr.
To come together in a herd: The sheep herded for warmth.

v.tr.

1. To gather, keep, or drive (animals) in a herd.
2. To tend (sheep or cattle).
3. To gather and place into a group or mass: herded the children into the auditorium.

[Middle English, from Old English heord.]

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The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2007, 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2009. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.

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