teeming

¹

[ tee-ming ]

adjective

1. abounding or swarming with something, as with people:

   We elbowed our way through the teeming station.

2. prolific or fertile.

teeming

²

[ tee-ming ]

adjective

1. falling in torrents:

   a teeming rain.

Other Words From

• teeming·ly adverb
• teeming·ness noun

Word History and Origins

Origin of teeming¹

First recorded in 1525–35; teem ¹ + -ing ²

Origin of teeming²

First recorded in 1685–95; teem ² + -ing ²

Example Sentences

So for the 12 years he spent at Aldgate, Chaucer was mostly alone, with a teeming urban scene literally beneath his feet.

From The Daily Beast

Ebola causes the body to excrete fluids that are teeming with the virus.

From The Daily Beast

Today Skid Row resembles a Third World tent city teeming with sleeping bags, shopping carts, and people with nowhere else to go.

From The Daily Beast

Remember those quaint ethnic communities, once teeming with stickball games and eggplant-shaped old women wielding rolling pins?

From The Daily Beast

A new study claims breast milk ordered online is teeming with bacteria.

From The Daily Beast

His banks were teeming with happy dusky figures and the smiling irrigated land was bright with fertility.

From Project Gutenberg

This may be so in England, with its teeming population and its almost illimitable industrial resources.

From Project Gutenberg

The morning after your performance your breakfast-table is covered with newspapers teeming with laudatory criticisms.

From Project Gutenberg

In whatever way I began, it always ended in a letter teeming with affection and with grief.

From Project Gutenberg

God delivers into your hands that teeming soil, its palaces, its beautiful women, its treasures.

From Project Gutenberg

Related Words

• brimming
• filled
• overflowing
• packed
• swarming