crowding

Concise Oxford English Dictionary © 2008 Oxford University Press:
crowd/kraʊd/

▶noun a large number of people gathered together.

■ a large audience, especially at a sporting event.

■ informal, often derogatory a group of people with a common interest.

▶verb

• 1 (often as adj. crowded) (of a number of people) fill (a space) almost completely, leaving little or no room for movement.

  ■ move or come together as a crowd.

• 2 move too close to: don't crowd her, she needs air.

• 3 (crowd someone/thing out) exclude by taking the place of someone or something.

– derivatives
crowdedness noun.

– origin OE crūdan ‘press, hasten’, of Gmc origin.