herd instinct

noun

the impulse or tendency toward clustering or acting in a group, especially the presumed instinct toward or need for gregariousness and conformity.

Nearby words

hercules-club, hercynian, hercynite, herd, herd immunity, herd instinct, herd tester, herd's-grass, herd-book, herder, herder, johann gottfried von

Origin of herd instinct

First recorded in 1905–10

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Examples from the Web for herd instinct

It is these that, with the power of the herd-instinct, press into the mind of the child, there fashioning and moulding it.
Collected Papers on Analytical Psychology|C. G. Jung
There must be free thought, scepticism, diminution in the intensity of herd-instinct.
The Problem of China|Bertrand Russell
It is this "herd-instinct," too, which makes man so extremely sensitive to the opinions of the society in which he lives.
Outwitting Our Nerves|Josephine A. Jackson and Helen M. Salisbury
The instinct which teaches the birds to build nests taught them to build huts; the herd-instinct drove them into tribes.
The Pools of Silence|H. de Vere Stacpoole

Weakening under the pressure, and swung by the power of herd-instinct, most of us "came."
Tramping on Life|Harry Kemp

British Dictionary definitions for herd instinct

herd instinct

noun

psychol the inborn tendency to associate with others and follow the group's behaviour

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

herd instinct

noun

RELATED CONTENT

Nearby words

Origin of herd instinct

Examples from the Web for herd instinct

British Dictionary definitions for herd instinct

herd instinct

noun