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Definition of "stampede" [stam•pede]

  • A sudden frenzied rush of panic-stricken animals. (noun)
  • A sudden headlong rush or flight of a crowd of people. (noun)
  • A mass impulsive action: a stampede of support for the candidate. (noun)
  • To cause (a herd of animals) to flee in panic. (verb-transitive)
  • To cause (a crowd of people) to act on mass impulse. (verb-transitive)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Use "stampede" in a sentence
  • "The ethanol stampede is contributing to a sugar shortage."
  • "Northland Scripture, the stampede is to the swift, the blazing of stakes to the strong, and the Crown in royalties, gathers to itself the fulness thereof."
  • "As the cattle continued their short-term stampede, campus cops intervened and inexplicably held Kotran against his will."