Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A densely packed group or crowd, as of people or animals.
  • noun Football A brief gathering of a team's players behind the line of scrimmage to receive instructions for the next play.
  • noun A small private conference or meeting.
  • intransitive verb To crowd together, as from cold or fear.
  • intransitive verb To draw or curl one's limbs close to one's body; crouch.
  • intransitive verb Football To gather in a huddle.
  • intransitive verb Informal To gather together for conference or consultation.
  • intransitive verb To cause to crowd together.
  • intransitive verb To draw (oneself) together in a crouch.
  • intransitive verb Chiefly British To arrange, do, or make hastily or carelessly.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A number of persons or things thrown together without rule or order; a confused crowd or cluster; a jumble.
  • noun A winning cast at shovel-board.
  • noun An old decrepit person.
  • noun A list.
  • Confused; jumbled.
  • In disorder; confusedly.
  • To throw together in confusion; crowd together without order.
  • To perform in haste and disorder; put together or produce in a hurried manner: often with up, over, or together.
  • To put on in haste and disorder, as clothes: usually with on.
  • To hush (up).
  • To embrace.
  • To crowd; press together promiscuously; press or hurry in disorder.
  • In the University of Cambridge, to keep an act in a perfunctory manner, requiring no study, in order that the necessary oath may be taken.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • transitive verb To crowd (things) together to mingle confusedly; to assemble without order or system.
  • transitive verb To do, make, or put, in haste or roughly; hence, to do imperfectly; -- usually with a following preposition or adverb
  • noun A crowd; a number of persons or things crowded together in a confused manner; tumult; confusion.
  • intransitive verb To press together promiscuously, from confusion, apprehension, or the like; to crowd together confusedly; to press or hurry in disorder; to crowd.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun a dense and disorderly crowd
  • noun American football a brief meeting of all the players from one team that are on the field with the purpose of planning the following play.
  • verb intransitive to crowd together as when distressed or in fear
  • verb intransitive to curl one's legs up to the chest and keep one's arms close to the torso; to crouch; to assume a position similar to that of an embryo in the womb
  • verb To get together and discuss
  • verb intransitive, American football to form a huddle.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • verb crowd or draw together
  • noun (informal) a quick private conference
  • verb crouch or curl up
  • noun a disorganized and densely packed crowd

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[From huddle, to crowd together, possibly from Low German hudeln; see (s)keu- in Indo-European roots.]

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Examples

  • Football fans will perhaps be pleased to know that the word huddle, from a Germanic verb to do with “crowding together” could it come from a primeval idea of a group hiding from animals or people, or protecting someone or something from being found or seen by others?

    The English Is Coming! Leslie Dunton-Downer 2010

  • Football fans will perhaps be pleased to know that the word huddle, from a Germanic verb to do with “crowding together” could it come from a primeval idea of a group hiding from animals or people, or protecting someone or something from being found or seen by others?

    The English Is Coming! Leslie Dunton-Downer 2010

  • The Colts huddle is pure posturing, no need for it, zero practical use whatsoever.

    The Peyton Puzzle: Redskins Week 6 preview Box Seats blogger 2010

  • "I thought he was very poised and seemed to adapt to being able to go in and call the huddle right away," Cable said.

    Oakland Raiders Team Report 2010

  • But at least once a game Mularkey will put Ryan in the no-huddle, which is when the third-year quarterbacks' true talents come out.

    Rodgers-Ryan must-see Anthony Stalter 2011

  • About 75 people in all, with, among other things, cooling devices to make sure the huddle, which is -- shuttle, I should say, which is hot as a frying pan when it lands, gets cooled off properly.

    CNN Transcript Jun 14, 2008 2008

  • Instead, the admiral called a huddle to discuss tactics.

    Sun of Suns 2006

  • "It must have been 15 years ago that Chip told me the huddle was the most overrated thing in all of sports," said Mark Linehan, a longtime Boston radio personality who was Kelly's roommate at the University of New Hampshire.

    SI.com 2011

  • Finally, South African foreign minister Maite Nkoana-Mashabane called a huddle of the major players in a last-gasp effort to find compromise language.

    News 2011

  • "The guys that are in the huddle are the ones that have to say something, step up when things are tough and so there's a number of those guys," Stoops said.

    Brownsville Herald : By BETSY BLANEY 2010

Comments

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  • The collective noun for a group of skunks. Cute! Seen here.

    October 13, 2009