▪ I. swarming, vbl. n.
(ˈswɔːmɪŋ)
[f. swarm v.1 + -ing1.]
The action of swarm v.1
1. The action of assembling in a swarm or dense crowd; spec. the gathering and departure from the hive of a swarm of bees; also transf. of persons (usually with off).
| 1550 Bale Engl. Votaries ii. 77 b, A myddle swarmynge of Antichristes sectes in England. 1573 Tusser Husb. (1878) 110 Watch bees in May, for swarming away. 1661 J. Childrey Brit. Baconica 26 The chief time of the swarming (as one would say) of Pilchards about the shores of Cornwall, is from July to November. 1675 J. Gedde New Discov. Bee-houses 16 When Bees are at the Swarming. 1707 Mortimer Husb. (1721) I. 271 Observe what you can of the usual Signs that precede their Swarming. 1817 Kirby & Sp. Entomol. xix. (1818) II. 167 Sometimes, when every thing seems to prognosticate swarming, a cloud passing over the sun calms the agitation. 1911 J. H. Rose W. Pitt vii. 168 The divisions, by the process of swarming-off, rapidly extended the organisation. |
2. Biol. The movement characteristic of swarm-spores; reproduction by swarm-spores.
| 1867 Chambers's Encycl. IX. 234/2. 1875 Bennett & Dyer tr. Sachs's Bot. 673 The swarming of zoospores. 1882 Vines tr. Sachs's Bot. 4 note, The term ‘swarming’ is applied to any apparently spontaneous motion imparted to a naked protoplasmic body by vibratile cilia. |
3. attrib., as swarming-place, swarming season, swarming time.
Used spec. in names of apparatus for transferring a swarm of bees to a new hive, as swarming-bag, swarming-basket, swarming-box, swarming-hook (in recent Dicts.).
| 1707 Mortimer Husb. (1721) I. 270 In Swarming time the Hives that you are minded to use, rub with sweet Herbs. 1855 Poultry Chron. III. 206/2 Watching and hiving for several weeks in the swarming season. 1892 Zangwill Childr. Ghetto I. 3 At last it [sc. the Ghetto] becomes only a swarming-place for the poor and the ignorant. |
▪ II. ˈswarming, ppl. a.
[f. swarm v.1 + -ing2.]
1. Assembling or moving in a swarm; forming a swarm or dense crowd; thronging; very numerous.
| 1590 Spenser F.Q. ii. x. 63 Those spoilefull Picts, and swarming Easterlings. 1725 Pole Odyss. xiii. 179 The swarming people hail their ship to land. 1784 Cowper Task iii. 555 Moisture and drought, mice, worms, and swarming flies. 1817 Shelley Rev. Islam v. xxxviii, To see Earth from her general womb Pour forth her swarming sons to a fraternal doom. 1856 Froude Hist. Eng. I. i. 40 Barges pursuing their now difficult way among the swarming steamers. |
2. spec. of bees; also transf. of persons: see swarm v.1 1, 1 b.
| 1553 N. Grimalde Cicero's Offices i. (1558) 69 Being swarming [orig. congregabilia] by kinde they work their combes. 1697 Dryden Virg. Past. vii. 18 See..How black the Clouds of swarming Bees arise. 1713 Young Last Day ii. 51 Swarming bees,..Charm'd with the brazen sound. 1869 Freeman Norm. Conq. III. xii. 147 Whence Ambigatus had sent forth his swarming colonists. |
3. Filled with a swarm or multitude; densely crowded; thronged; very populous.
| 1810 Montgomery West Indies ii. 117 That stock he found on Afric's swarming plains. 1842 Tennyson Talking Oak 213 The swarming sound of life. 1858 Hawthorne Fr. & It. Note-bks. (1872) I. 16 A swarming city. |
4. Biol. Emerging as swarm-spores, or moving in the way characteristic of them: see swarm v.1 1 c.
| 1864 Reader 30 Apr. 548/3 The swarming-spores of certain Algæ. 1882 Vines tr. Sachs's Bot. 232 In many of the more highly developed Thallophytes this power of motility is however limited to the male ‘swarming’ fertilising elements. |