throng

throng against (something)

To cover and press up against something in large numbers. Protestors began thronging against the police barricades surrounding the parliament building. We all thronged against the windows of the shop, staring at all the wonderful toys on display.
See also: throng

throng around (someone or something)

To surround and press up against someone or something in large numbers. Dozens of screaming fans thronged around the popstar as he left the stadium. Hundreds of workers have started thronging around the gates of the factory, demanding to be let in.
See also: around, throng

throng in

To crowd in(to some place) all at once. Reporters thronged in shortly after the incident to interview the woman who had thwarted the attempted robbery. Tens of thousands of people have begun thronging in the streets to protest the controversial legislation.
See also: throng

throng into (some place)

To crowd into some place all at once. Reporters thronged into the store shortly after the incident to interview the woman who had thwarted the attempted robbery. Tens of thousands of people have begun thronging into the streets to protest the controversial legislation.
See also: throng

throng out

To empty out (of some place) in great numbers and all at once. Thousands have been thronging out of the city to escape the oncoming hurricane. The final bell of the school year rang, and hundreds of students thronged out to a summer of freedom.
See also: out, throng

throng out of (some place)

To empty out of some place in great numbers and all at once. Thousands have been thronging out of the city to escape the oncoming hurricane. Students thronged out of the school as the final bell of the school year rang.
See also: of, out, throng
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.

throng around someone or something

to crowd around someone or something. The children thronged around the lady with the bags of candy. Everyone thronged around the piano for the group sing.
See also: around, throng

throng in(to something)

[for a crowd] to swarm into some place. The eager crowd thronged into the department store to partake in the advertised sale. The doors opened and they thronged in.
See also: throng

throng out (of something)

[for a crowd] to swarm out of something or some place. The people thronged out of the concert hall at the end of the program. At half past ten, the crowd thronged out.
See also: out, throng
McGraw-Hill Dictionary of American Idioms and Phrasal Verbs.
See also:
  • get up against
  • get up against (someone or something)
  • clash
  • clash against
  • clash against (someone or something)
  • compete
  • compete against
  • compete against (someone or something)
  • institute
  • institute against
References in classic literature
All that day the drums resounded, the priests chanted, and the multitude feasted and roared till sunset, when the throng dispersed, and the Taboo Groves were again abandoned to quiet and repose.
When however we drew near it these joyous nymphs paused in their career, and parting on either side, permitted me to pass on to the now densely thronged building.
Typee
The crowd hurled itself towards them, and they already beheld the frail wooden railing, which separated them from it, giving way and bending before the pressure of the throng.
So the crowd of citizens, male and female, having closed their houses and shops, thronged from every direction, at early morn, towards some one of the three spots designated.
Notre Dame de Paris
By and bye he passed into a cross street, which, although densely filled with people, was not quite so much thronged as the main one he had quitted.
Man of the Crowd
Fearful of sustaining a charge in the narrow passages in which they were so closely wedged together, the throng poured out as impetuously as they had flocked in.
As the horses came in among them, the throng gave way at many points, and the Guards, following up their advantage, were rapidly clearing the ground, when two or three of the foremost, who were in a manner cut off from the rest by the people closing round them, made straight towards Barnaby and Hugh, who had no doubt been pointed out as the two men who dropped into the lobby: laying about them now with some effect, and inflicting on the more turbulent of their opponents, a few slight flesh wounds, under the influence of which a man dropped, here and there, into the arms of his fellows, amid much groaning and confusion.
Barnaby Rudge A Tale Of The Riots Of Eighty
Just at this time the mayor was boasting that he had put an end to gambling and prize fighting in the city; but here a swarm of professional gamblers had leagued themselves with the police to fleece the strikebreakers; and any night, in the big open space in front of Brown's, one might see brawny Negroes stripped to the waist and pounding each other for money, while a howling throng of three or four thousand surged about, men and women, young white girls from the country rubbing elbows with big buck Negroes with daggers in their boots, while rows of woolly heads peered down from every window of the surrounding factories.
And then at night, when this throng poured out into the streets to play--fighting, gambling, drinking and carousing, cursing and screaming, laughing and singing, playing banjoes and dancing!
Jungle
"If I am not greatly mistaken I can see, off yonder in the distance, a throng of men or animals moving.
Five Weeks in a Balloon
The little man gave a bow to the silent throng that had watched him, and then the Prince said, in his cold, calm voice:
Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz
Once more he tried the throng, as if seeking safety in its blindness, and then several moments succeeded, during which Duncan believed the active and courageous young stranger was lost.
Last of The Mohicans
A throng of bearded men, in sad-coloured garments and grey steeple-crowned hats, inter-mixed with women, some wearing hoods, and others bareheaded, was assembled in front of a wooden edifice, the door of which was heavily timbered with oak, and studded with iron spikes.
Scarlet Letter
As the heron looketh contemptuously at shallow pools, with backward-bent head, so do I look at the throng of grey little waves and wills and souls.
Thus Spake Zarathustra
She had scarcely entered the ballroom and reached the throng of ladies, all tulle, ribbons, lace, and flowers, waiting to be asked to dance--Kitty was never one of that throng--when she was asked for a waltz, and asked by the best partner, the first star in the hierarchy of the ballroom, a renowned director of dances, a married man, handsome and well-built, Yegorushka Korsunsky.
Anna Karenina