Flock, n.
Etymology: [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.
4 other Webster entries under this spelling
Flock, v. i. [imp. & p. p. Flocked; p. pr. & vb. n. Flocking.]
To gather in companies or crowds. Friends daily flock. Dryden. Flocking fowl (Zoöl.), the greater scaup duck.
Flock, v. t.
To flock to; to crowd. [Obs.] Good fellows, trooping, flocked me so. Taylor (1609).
Flock, n.
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.
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.
Shades of meaning
Group is the general word for any gathering of a small number of objects, whether of persons, animals, or inanimate things. The individuals in a brood or litter are related to each other; those in the other groups may not be. Brood is used chiefly of fowls and birds, litter of certain quadrupeds which bring forth many young at a birth; we speak of a brood of chickens, a litter of puppies; brood is sometimes applied to a family of young children. Bevy is used of birds, and figuratively of any bright and lively group of women or children, but rarely of men. Flock is applied to birds and to some of the smaller animals; herd is confined to the larger animals; we speak of a bevy of quail, a covey of partridges, a flock of blackbirds, or a flock of sheep, a herd of cattle, horses, buffaloes, or elephants, a pack of wolves, a pack of hounds, a swarm of bees. A collection of animals driven or gathered for driving is called a drove.