Definition of "herd"

The lowing herd wind slowly o’er the lea.

1768, Thomas Gray, Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard

Zakouma is the last place on Earth where you can see more than a thousand elephants on the move in a single, compact herd.

2007 March, J. Michael Fay, “Ivory Wars: Last Stand in Zakouma”, in National Geographic, section 47

But far more numerous was the Herd of ſuch, / Who think too little, and who talk too much.

1681, [John Dryden], Absalom and Achitophel. A Poem. […], 3rd edition, London: […] J[acob] T[onson] and are to be sold by W. Davis […], published 1682, page 15

You can never interest the common herd in the abstract question.

1833 June 8, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Table Talk

There were herds of leather sofas and enough computers to ensure that no prospective matriculant or visiting parent could enter a room and not see at least one available keyboard, not even in the dining hall or field house.

2001, Jonathan Franzen, The Corrections

The women bunched up in little droves and let their tongues clack, and the men herded together and passed a jug around and, to tell the truth, let their tongues clack too.

1953, Janice Holt Giles, The Kentuckians

Any predator that preys on animals that herd or school, has to be able to single out one individual to attack.

1983, Richard Ellis, The Book of Sharks, Knopf, page 167

I’ll herd among his Friends, and ſeemOne of the Number, […]

1712 (date written), [Joseph] Addison, Cato, a Tragedy. […], London: […] J[acob] Tonson, […], published 1713, Act III, scene i, pages 39–40

"[W]hy, I say, oh stranger, dost thou think that I herd here with barbarians lower than the beasts?"

1886 October – 1887 January, H[enry] Rider Haggard, She: A History of Adventure, London: Longmans, Green, and Co., published 1887

John Dodds, the herd who bode in the place, was standing at the door, and he looked to see who was on the road so late.

1902, John Buchan, The Outgoing of the Tide

Any talent which gives a good new thing to others is a miracle, but commentators have thought it extra miraculous that England's first known poet was an illiterate herd.

2000, Alasdair Grey, The Book of Prefaces, Bloomsbury, published 2002, page 38