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A great multitude assembled; a crowd; a throng; -- said especially of fish; as, a shoal of bass. "Great shoals of people." Bacon. Beneath, a shoal of silver fishes glides. Waller.

A loud burst of voice or voices; a vehement and sudden outcry, especially of a multitudes expressing joy, triumph, exultation, or animated courage. The Rhodians, seeing the enemy turn their backs, gave a great shout in derision. Knolles.

Alone; having no companion. Who single hast maintained, Against revolted multitudes, the cause Of truth. Milton.

Fig.: To deprive of something by imposition. "How came such multitudes of our nation . . . to be sponged of their plate and their money" South.

See Spore formation, belw. Spore formation. (a) (Biol) A mode of reproduction resembling multitude fission, common among Protozoa, in which the organism breaks up into a number of pieces, or spores, each of which eventually develops into an organism like the parent form. Balfour.

the fight, confess their fear. Dryden. The roads leading to the capital were covered with multitudes of yeomen, spurring hard to Westminster. Macaulay. Some bold men, . . . by spurring on, refine themselves. Grew.

Squalidness; foulness; filthness; squalidity. The heterogenous indigent multitude, everywhere wearing nearly the same aspect of squalor. Taylor. To bring this sort of squalor among the upper classes. Dickens.

To subtract by arithmetical operation; to deduct. If, out of that infinite multitude of antecedent generations, we should subduce ten. Sir M. Hale.

Hence, any great nimber 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.

from the hills; a freshet sweeps away a dam, timber, or rubbish; a pestilence sweeps off multitudes. The hail shall sweep away the refuge of lies. Isa. xxviii. 17. I have already swept the stakes. Dryden.

A multitude of persons or of living beings pressing or pressed into a close body or assemblage; a crowd.

A collection of people; a company; a number; a multitude. That which should accompany old age --As honor, love, obedience, troops of friends --I must not look to have. Shak.

The commotion or agitation of a multitude, usually accompanied with great noise, uproar, and confusion of voices; hurly-burly; noisy confusion. What meaneth the noise of this tumult 1 Sam. iv. 14. Till in loud tumult all the Greeks arose. Pope.

Innumerable. [Obs.] "An unnumerable multitude." Udall.

ent building, as of an amphitheater. Sixty-four vomitories . . . poured forth the immense multitude. Gibbon.

Of or pertaining to the mass, or multitude, of people; common; general; ordinary; public; hence, in general use; vernacular. "As common as any the most vulgar thing to sense. " Shak. Things vulgar, and well-weighed, scarce worth the praise. Milton. It might be more useful to the English reader . . . to write in our vul…

te saw that he could prevail nothing, . . . he took water and washed his hands before the multitude, saying, I am innocent of the blood of this just person. Matt. xxvii. 24.

As an emblem of immensity, a great multitude or quantity; a large number. "A world of men." Chapman. "A world of blossoms for the bee." Bryant. Nor doth this wood lack worlds of company. Shak. A world of woes dispatched in little space. Dryden. All . . . in the world, all that exists; all that is possible; as, all the…

ight, and in the morning before dawn. It is supposed to be due to sunlight reflected from multitudes of meteoroids revolving about the sun nearly in the plane of the ecliptic.