hoard

1 of 3

noun (1)

plural hoards
: a supply or fund stored up and often hidden away
a hoard of cash

hoard

2 of 3

verb

hoarded; hoarding; hoards

transitive verb

1
: to collect and often hide away a supply of : to accumulate a hoard (see hoard entry 1) of
hoarding food
2
: to keep (something, such as one's thoughts) to oneself
she hoarded her intentionVirginia Woolf
the people outside disperse their affections, you hoard yours, you nurse them into intensityJoseph Conrad

intransitive verb

: to collect and often hide away a supply of something
specifically : to engage in compulsive hoarding
One thing people who hoard have in common is a skewed perceived value of possessions. My Edmonds News (Edmonds, Washington)

hoard

3 of 3

noun (2)

plural hoards
: a temporary board fence put around a building being erected or repaired : hoarding entry 2 sense 1

Examples of hoard in a Sentence

Noun (1) a squirrel's hoard of nuts keeps a hoard of empty yogurt containers in his basement workshop for storing whatnots Verb he's been hoarding empty yogurt containers all winter, with the intention of using them to start seedlings in the spring
Recent Examples on the Web
Noun
On the last night, each race was filled with cheers: cheers as the horses and their drivers were released from behind the gate, cheers each time the hoard of racing horses passed by on the half-mile track, and even more cheers when a particular horse took the lead and crossed the finish line. Kylie Martin, Detroit Free Press, 8 Feb. 2024 Rumors among Bitcoin users suggested that the hoard was possibly a Silk Road wallet, or perhaps the result of an unrelated, notorious Bitcoin Ponzi scheme carried out by a user known as pirate@40. Meiklejohn couldn’t say which of the two rumors might be correct. Andy Greenberg, Ars Technica, 18 Jan. 2024 The rally—which would be the low-volatility Berkshire’s best day since August—came after Berkshire reported its best-ever annual operating profit of $96 billion and biggest-ever cash hoard of $168 billion. Derek Saul, Forbes, 26 Feb. 2024 In the meantime, however, Berkshire’s cash hoard grew to a record $167.6 billion in the fourth quarter. Steve Mollman, Fortune, 24 Feb. 2024 The Kansas City Chiefs tight end had hoards of family and friends in his corner during Sunday's game, which saw his team take home the Super Bowl title for the second year in a row. Alexandra Schonfeld, Peoplemag, 12 Feb. 2024 When Threads was announced, Musk agreed with Twitter founder Jack Dorsey’s criticism of Meta collecting hoards of data. Ananya Bhattacharya, Quartz, 7 July 2023 Social media influencers buzz around promoting both themselves and the brands that invite them, while television cameras navigate the hoards of people, trying to broadcast the race experience to the millions watching at home. Ben Church, CNN, 6 Feb. 2024 But the problem was drilling down further, definitively drawing a boundary around the bitcoin hoard of any single person or organization. Andy Greenberg, Ars Technica, 18 Jan. 2024
Verb
Besides, airline miles may not be worth hoarding anyway. Medora Lee, USA TODAY, 15 Mar. 2024 Critics liken these investors to financial vultures depriving would-be homeowners of a shot at the American Dream while hoarding the profits of the last decade’s run-up in national home prices and rents. Calmatters, Orange County Register, 7 Mar. 2024 Pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly is making a plea to some of its customers: stop hoarding our weight loss drugs. Ed Cara / Gizmodo, Quartz, 7 Mar. 2024 Cooperatives mean that a handful of shareholders like the Walton family aren’t hoarding all the gains while keeping wages low and causing widespread worker food insecurity. Errol Schweizer, Forbes, 27 Feb. 2024 The National Alliance on Mental Illness connects hoarding with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD). Amy Dickinson, Washington Post, 26 Feb. 2024 Rather, for all the top stylists and Hollywood fashionistas who’ve been hoarding their best gowns and suiting, tonight’s Screen Actors Guild (SAG) Awards marks one of the last opportunities to win a red carpet superlative before the Oscars. Alex Rees, CNN, 24 Feb. 2024 For instance, traumatic life experiences can create a tendency to hoard possessions. Annie Midori Atherton, Washington Post, 2 Mar. 2024 In part, this is to combat one of the biggest current fears around quantum computing: that countries and threat actors are gathering and hoarding encrypted data today with the plan to unlock its secrets if quantum technologies evolve. Matt Burgess, WIRED, 21 Feb. 2024

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'hoard.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Word History

Etymology

Noun (1) and Verb

Middle English hord, from Old English; akin to Goth huzd treasure, Old English hȳdan to hide

First Known Use

Noun (1)

before the 12th century, in the meaning defined above

Verb

before the 12th century, in the meaning defined at transitive sense 1

Noun (2)

1757, in the meaning defined above

Time Traveler
The first known use of hoard was before the 12th century

Dictionary Entries Near hoard

Cite this Entry

“Hoard.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/hoard. Accessed 28 Mar. 2024.

Kids Definition

hoard

noun
ˈhō(ə)rd,
ˈhȯ(ə)rd
: a hidden supply or fund stored up
hoard verb
hoarder noun

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