mob
Pronunciation: /mɒb/
noun
- 1a large crowd of people, especially one that is disorderly and intent on causing trouble or violence: a mob of protesters
- British informal a group of people in the same place or with something in common: he stood out from the rest of the mob with his silver hair and stacked shoes
- (the mob) the ordinary people: the age-old fear that the mob may organize to destroy the last vestiges of civilized life
verb ( mobs, mobbing, mobbed)
- crowd round (someone) or into (a place) in an unruly way: he was mobbed by autograph hunters
- (of a group of birds or mammals) surround and attack (a predator or other source of threat) in order to drive it off: a cuckoo flew over, to be mobbed at once by two reed warblers (as noun mobbing) small mammals may indulge in mobbing to rid themselves of a feared killer
Origin:
late 17th century: abbreviation of archaic mobile, short for Latin mobile vulgus 'excitable crowd'