Also 4–7 swarme, (5 swerme), 6 Sc. suarm, 7 Sc. swairme. [f. SWARM sb.: cf. MLG., MHG. swarmen; also, with mutation, OE. *swierman, swirman, MLG., MDu. swermen (Du. zwermen), MHG. swärmen (G. schwärmen), Sw. svärma, Da. sværme.]
1. intr. Of bees: To gather in a compact cluster and leave the hive in a body to found a new colony: see SWARM sb. 1. Also with off.
c. 1386. Chaucer, Sompn. Prol., 29. Right so as bees out swarmen [Corpus & Camb. MSS. swermen] from an hyue.
1573. Tusser, Husb. (1878), 114. Take heede to thy bees, that are readie to swarme.
1609. C. Butler, Fem. Mon., v. (1623), I 3. Those that swarme before the blowing of knap-weed come in very good time.
1697. Dryden, Virg. Georg., IV. 28. The youthful Prince, with loud allarm, Calls out the vent’rous Colony to swarm.
1818. Scott, Rob Roy, xvii. Ye see this is the second swarm, and while they will swarm off in the afternoon. The first swarm set off sune in the morning.
1875. Encycl. Brit., III. 502/1. It often happens that bees give every indication of an intention to swarm, and cluster idly outside the hive … for … weeks before they really emigrate.
b. allusively: cf. SWARM sb. 1 b.
1609. Bible (Douay), 2 Macc. i. 12. He made them swarme out of Persis.
1745. Season. Adv. Protest., 17. Protestants, who from a common Ancestor … have swarmed into many Stocks.
1821–30. Ld. Cockburn, Mem., vii. (1874), 401. Jealousies and dissensions … induced the artists to swarm off, and begin the Academy.
1909. J. T. Fowler, in Yorks. Archæol. Jrnl., XX. 1. The number of monks increased so rapidly that they were soon obliged to swarm off, like bees, into new monasteries of the same Order.
c. Biol. Of certain spores or reproductive bodies: To escape from the parent organism in a swarm, with characteristic movement; to move or swim about in a swarm, as zoospores (‘swarm-spores’) do in the cell just before escaping, and in the water after escaping.
1864, 1867, 1875, 1882. [see SWARMING ppl. a. 4, vbl. sb. 2].
1875. Bennett & Dyer, trans. Sachs’s Bot., 674. In Algæ of simple structure … the swarmspores are also formed in the night, but swarm only with access of daylight.
d. trans. in causative sense.
1827. J. F. Cooper, Prairie, iv. ‘Swarm your own hive,’ returned the discontented bee-hunter.
2. intr. To come together in a swarm or dense crowd; to collect, assemble or congregate thickly and confusedly; to crowd, throng; also, to go or move along in a crowd.
c. 1386. Chaucer, Sqr.’s T., 181. Greet was the prees þat swarmeth to and fro To gauren on this hors that stondeth so.
1513. Douglas, Æneis, VI. v. 23. Thiddir to the bray swarmit all the rout Of deid gaistis.
1515. Barclay, Egloges, II. (1570), B iv/2. If the dishe be pleasaunt,… Ten handes at once swarme in the dishe.
1526. Tindale, Acts xxi. 30. All the cite was moved, and all the people swarmed togedder.
1551. Robinson, trans. More’s Utopia, II. (1895), 179. All the people were swarmed furth into the stretes.
1604. Dekker, Honest Wh., Wks. 1873, II. 96. They swarme like Crickets to the creuice of a Brew-house.
1764. Burn, Poor Laws, 205. The religious houses sent abroad their friers mendicant, who swarmed about the kingdom.
1847. Tennyson, Princess, Concl. 37. The crowd were swarming now, To take their leave, about the garden rails.
1867. Lady Herbert, Cradle L., iv. 126. The English were swarming out of this inn.
1875. Jowett, Plato, IV. 233. The ideas swarming in men’s minds.
3. To occur or exist in swarms or multitudes; to be densely crowded or congregated; to be very numerous, abound excessively. (Often in reproach or contempt, esp. when said of persons.)
1399. Langl., Rich. Redeles, II. 21. Signes þat swarmed so thikke Þoru-oute his lond … Þat [etc.].
a. 1548. Hall, Chron., Hen. V., 54. Their bodies whiche swarmed euery day about thenglishe shippes.
1570. B. Googe, Pop. Kingd., IV. (1880), 47 b. Puddings every wheare Do swarme.
1594. Greene & Lodge, Looking Gl., III. ii. When falshood swarmeth both in old and youth.
1634. Brereton, Trav. (Chetham Soc.), 13. Arminians, Brownists, and Anabaptists, and Manists, do lurk here and also swarm.
a. 1700. Evelyn, Diary, 19 Aug. 1641. The Sectaries that swarm’d in this Citty.
1721. Bailey, To Swarm … to abound, spoken of Vermin.
1742. Young, Nt. Th., IX. 765. Bright legions swarm unseen, and sing … the glorious Architect.
1849. Macaulay, Hist. Eng., vii. II. 239. Roman Catholics already swarmed in every department of the public service.
1883. Gilmour, Mongols, xv. 167. Native doctors swarm in Mongolia.
4. To swarm with: to be crowded or thronged with; to contain swarms or great numbers of; to abound greatly in. Now only in material sense.
a. 1548. Hall, Chron., Hen. V., 46. The countree swarmed with men of warre.
1548. Udall, etc., Erasm. Par. Matt. vii. 49. They that swarme with much greater vices.
a. 1592. Greene, Jas. IV., V. ii. Oh, what are subtile meanes to clime on high, When euery fall swarmes with exceeding shame?
1593. Shaks., Rich. II., III. iv. 47. Her wholesome Herbes, Swarming with Caterpillers.
1667. Milton, P. L., VII. 400. Each Creek & Bay With Frie innumerable swarme.
1732. Berkeley, Alciphr., II. § 13. All kinds of animals, with which the creation swarms.
1849. Macaulay, Hist. Eng., ix. II. 484. A market-place swarming with buyers and sellers.
1893. Forbes-Mitchell, Remin. Gt. Mutiny, 269. The river swarmed with alligators.
† b. Similarly, to swarm full of, to swarm in.
1482. Monk of Evesham (Arb.), 40. The lenthe of that valey was so full of fowyls, as hyues swarmyn ful of bees.
1560. Daus, trans. Sleidane’s Comm., 36. They shall not onely not take awaye theyr sectes, but increase and swarme in the same.
1561. T. Norton, Calvin’s Inst., II. iii. (1634), 127. The soule … while it swarmeth full of such diseases of vices.
1694. Atterbury, Serm., Prov. xiv. 6 (1726), I. 198. The Great Lords of the Earth, who swarm in all the Delights of Sense.
5. trans. To fill or beset as, or with, a swarm; to crowd densely, throng. Chiefly pass.
1555. Eden, Decades, III. (Arb.), 188. The barbarians … came swarmyng the bankes on bothe sydes the ryuer, to the number of syxe thousande men.
1559. Mirr. Mag., Induct., lxxv. The rout Gan all in heapes to swarme vs round about.
a. 1586. Sidney, Ps. XXXII. vii. Who on God his trust invokes With mercies shall be swarmed.
1647. Fanshawe, Æneid, IV. Poems 287. How did thy sences quayle Seeing the shoares so swarm’d.
1810. Sporting Mag., XXXV. 8. Your house is so swarmed with rats.
1823. Moore, Mem. (1853), IV. 121. Poor wretches, who marry upon the strength of this pied-à-terre, and swarm the little spot they occupy with children.
1847. Zoologist, V. 1899. Brighton was swarmed with lady-birds on Saturday and Sunday.
1886. R. L. de Beaufort, Lett. Geo. Sand, I. 130. You will also see the towers of Notre Dame; they are swarmed with swallows.
6. To breed or produce a swarm of. rare–1.
1842. Tennyson, Will Waterproof, xxv. Ere days, that deal in ana, swarm’d His [sc. the Poet’s] literary leeches.
