• (RP) IPA: /hɜːd/
• (America) IPA: /hɚd/

From Middle English herde, heerde, heorde, from Old English hierd, heord, from Proto-West Germanic *herdu, from Proto-Germanic *herdō, from Proto-Indo-European *ḱerdʰ-.

herd (plural herds)

1. A number of domestic animals assembled together under the watch or ownership of a keeper. [from 11th c.]

   a herd of cattle

   a herd of sheep

   a herd of goats

   • 1768, Thomas Gray, Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard:

     The lowing herd wind slowly o’er the lea.

2. Any collection of animals gathered or travelling in a company. [from 13th c.]
3. (now, usually, pejorative) A crowd, a mass of people or things; a rabble. [from 15th c.]
   • 1681, [John Dryden], Absalom and Achitophel. A Poem. […], 3rd edition, London: […] J[acob] T[onson] and are to be sold by W. Davis […], published 1682, →OCLC ↗, page 15 ↗:

     But far more numerous was the Herd of ſuch, / Who think too little, and who talk too much.

   • 2001, Jonathan Franzen, The Corrections:

     There were herds of leather sofas and enough computers to ensure that no prospective matriculant or visiting parent could enter a room and not see at least one available keyboard, not even in the dining hall or field house.

• French: troupeau
• German: Herde
• Italian: mandria, armento
• Portuguese: rebanho
• Russian: ста́до
• Spanish: rebaño

• German: Pferdeherde

• Portuguese: vara

• Italian: gregge

• French: troupeau
• German: Herde
• Italian: mandria, branco, armento, masseria
• Portuguese: manada
• Russian: ста́до
• Spanish: hato, rebaño, manada

• Italian: masnada, accozzaglia, accolita, cricca, ciurma
• Portuguese: súcia, cambada, canalha, malta, corja, choldra, ralé, gentalha, populacho, patuleia, povinho, plebe, vulgo, bas fond, escória
• Russian: ста́до
• Spanish: rebaño

herd (herds, present participle herding; simple past and past participle herded)

1. (intransitive) To unite or associate in a herd; to feed or run together, or in company.

   Sheep herd on many hills.

2. (transitive) To unite or associate in a herd
3. (transitive) To manage, care for or guard a herd

   He is employed to herd the goats.

4. (intransitive) To associate; to ally oneself with, or place oneself among, a group or company.
   • 1712 (date written), [Joseph] Addison, Cato, a Tragedy. […], London: […] J[acob] Tonson, […], published 1713, →OCLC ↗, Act III, scene i, pages 39–40 ↗:

     I’ll herd among his Friends, and ſeem
     One of the Number, […]

   • 1886 October – 1887 January, H[enry] Rider Haggard, She: A History of Adventure, London: Longmans, Green, and Co., published 1887, →OCLC ↗:

     "[W]hy, I say, oh stranger, dost thou think that I herd here with barbarians lower than the beasts?"

5. To move, or be moved, in a group. (of both animals and people)

   On alighting at the station, we were all herded over the footbridge and through a side exit.

• French: rassembler
• German: hüten
• Italian: radunare
• Portuguese: arrebanhar-se
• Spanish: conducir

• Italian: unirsi
• Portuguese: arrebanhar-se

From Middle English herde, from Old English hirde, hierde, from Proto-West Germanic *hirdī, from Proto-Germanic *hirdijaz.

herd (plural herds)

1. (now, rare) Someone who keeps a group of domestic animals.

   Synonyms: herder, herdsman

   • 1902, John Buchan, The Outgoing of the Tide:

     John Dodds, the herd who bode in the place, was standing at the door, and he looked to see who was on the road so late.

   • 2000, Alasdair Grey, The Book of Prefaces, Bloomsbury, published 2002, page 38:

     Any talent which gives a good new thing to others is a miracle, but commentators have thought it extra miraculous that England's first known poet was an illiterate herd.

• cowherd
• goatherd
• gosherd
• hogsherd
• horseherd
• neatherd
• shepherd
• swineherd

• German: Hirt, Hirte
• Portuguese: arrebanhador, pastor
• Spanish: pastor, rebañador

herd (herds, present participle herding; simple past and past participle herded)

1. (intransitive, Scotland) To act as a herdsman or a shepherd.
2. (transitive) To form or put into a herd.
3. (transitive) To move or drive a herd.

   I heard the herd of cattle being herded home from a long way away.

• Italian: imbrancare
• Portuguese: pastorear
• Russian: пасти
• Spanish: pastorear

• Portuguese: arrebanhar

1. Surname.