Throng, n.
Etymology: [OE. þrong, þrang, AS. geþrang, fr. þringan to crowd, to press; akin to OS. thringan, D. & G. dringen, OHG. dringan, Icel. þryngva, þröngva, Goth. þriehan, D. & G. drang a throng, press, Icel. þröng a throng, Lith. trenkti to jolt, tranksmas a tumult. Cf. Thring.]
1. A multitude of persons or of living beings pressing or pressed into a close body or assemblage; a crowd.
2. A great multitude; as, the heavenly throng.
Syn. -- Throng, Multitude, Crowd. Any great number of persons form a multitude; a throng is a large number of persons who are gathered or are moving together in a collective body; a crowd is composed of a large or small number of persons who press together so as to bring their bodies into immediate or inconvenient contact. A dispersed multitude; the throngs in the streets of a city; the crowd at a fair or a street fight. But these distinctions are not carefully observed. So, with this bold opposer rushes on This many-headed monster, multitude. Daniel. Not to know me argues yourselves unknown, The lowest of your throng. Milton. I come from empty noise, and tasteless pomp, From crowds that hide a monarch from himself. Johnson.
3 other Webster entries under this spelling
Throng, v. i. [imp. & p. p. Thronged; p. pr. & vb. n. Thronging.]
To crowd together; to press together into a close body, as a multitude of persons; to gather or move in multitudes. I have seen the dumb men throng to see him. Shak.
Throng, v. t.
1. To crowd, or press, as persons; to oppress or annoy with a crowd of living beings. Much people followed him, and thronged him. Mark v. 24.
2. To crowd into; to fill closely by crowding or pressing into, as a hall or a street. Shak.
Throng, a.
Thronged; crowded; also, much occupied; busy. [Obs. or Prov. Eng.] Bp. Sanderson. To the intent the sick . . . should not lie too throng. Robynson (More's Utopia).
Shades of meaning
A crowd is a company of persons filling to excess the space they occupy and pressing inconveniently upon one another; the total number in a crowd may be great or small. Throng is a word of vastness and dignity, always implying that the persons are numerous as well as pressed or pressing closely together; there may be a dense crowd in a small room, but there can not be a throng. Host and multitude both imply vast numbers, but a multitude may be diffused over a great space so as to be nowhere a crowd; host is a military term, and properly denotes an assembly too orderly for crowding. Concourse signifies a spontaneous gathering of many persons moved by a common impulse, and has a suggestion of stateliness not found in the word crowd, while suggesting less massing and pressure than is indicated by the word throng.