Webster
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Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary · 1913

Swarm

Swarm (swa̤rm), v. i. [Cf. Swerve.] To climb a tree, pole, or the like, by embracing it with the arms and legs alternately. See Shin. [Colloq.]

At the top was placed a piece of money, as a prize for those who could swarm up and seize it. W. Coxe.

Swarm, n. [OE. swarm, AS. swearm; akin to D. zwerm, G. schwarm, OHG. swaram, Icel. svarmr a tumult, Sw. svärm a swarm, Dan. sværm, and G. schwirren to whiz, to buzz, Skr. svar to sound, and perhaps to E. swear. √177. Cf. Swerve, Swirl.] 1. A large number or mass of small animals or insects, especially when in motion. "A deadly swarm of hornets." Milton.

2. Especially, a great number of honeybees which emigrate from a hive at once, and seek new lodgings under the direction of a queen; a like body of bees settled permanently in a hive. "A swarm of bees." Chaucer.

3. Hence, any great number or multitude, as of people in motion, or sometimes of inanimate objects; as, a swarm of meteorites.

Those prodigious swarms that had settled themselves in every part of it [Italy]. Addison.

Syn. — Multitude; crowd; throng.

Swarm, v. i. [imp. & p. p. Swarmed; p. pr. & vb. n. Swarming.] 1. To collect, and depart from a hive by flight in a body; — said of bees; as, bees swarm in warm, clear days in summer.

2. To appear or collect in a crowd; to throng together; to congregate in a multitude. Chaucer.

3. To be crowded; to be thronged with a multitude of beings in motion.

Every place swarms with soldiers. Spenser.

4. To abound; to be filled (with). Atterbury.

5. To breed multitudes.

Not so thick swarmed once the soil Bedropped with blood of Gorgon. Milton.

Swarm, v. t. To crowd or throng. Fanshawe.

Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Noah Porter, editor (Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913). Public domain. Text as transcribed by MICRA, Inc., from Project Gutenberg. Changed for Deep Dive Bible: Greek, which our source spelled in Latin letters, set in Greek letters; entries of one spelling merged into one article; Greek words our source left out (shown as “?”), read from the 1898 printing, from the same plates (the Library of Congress’s copy), where the place could be found with certainty. Of the others, 1,362 (a word or a single letter each) were inferred by AI from the context by the dictionary’s own rules and are marked with a wavy underline (tap or point at one to see the note); the rest, which could not be inferred with confidence, are left as “?”.