bevy


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Related to bevy: bevy of beauties

bev·y

(bĕv′ē)
n. pl. bev·ies
1. A group of birds, especially quail.
2. A group or assemblage: a bevy of poets; a bevy of mistakes.

[Middle English, from Anglo-Norman bevee.]
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

bevy

(ˈbɛvɪ)
n, pl bevies
1. (Zoology) a flock of quails
2. a group, esp of girls
3. (Zoology) a group of roedeer
[C15: of uncertain origin]
Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

bev•y

(ˈbɛv i)

n., pl. bev•ies.
1. a group of birds, as larks or quail, or animals, as roebuck, in close association.
2. a large group or collection: a bevy of sailors.
[1400–50; late Middle English bevey, of obscure orig.]
Random House Kernerman Webster's College Dictionary, © 2010 K Dictionaries Ltd. Copyright 2005, 1997, 1991 by Random House, Inc. All rights reserved.

Bevy

 a drinking company; an assembly or collection. See also covey, flight, flock, herd, swarm.
Examples: bevy of beauties, of bright damsels, 1725; of conies, 1486; of fair women, 1667; of fairies, 1603; of girls; of ladies, 1470; of larks, 1470; of maids of honour, 1808; of otter; of powdered coxcombs, 1765; of quails, 1630; of renegades, 1848; of roes [six head of roe deer], 1470; of slaves, 1611; of swans.
Dictionary of Collective Nouns and Group Terms. Copyright 2008 The Gale Group, Inc. All rights reserved.
ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:
Noun1.bevy - a large gathering of people of a particular typebevy - a large gathering of people of a particular type; "he was surrounded by a bevy of beauties in bathing attire"; "a bevy of young beach boys swarmed around him"
assemblage, gathering - a group of persons together in one place
2.bevy - a flock of birds (especially when gathered close together on the ground)bevy - a flock of birds (especially when gathered close together on the ground); "we were visited at breakfast by a bevy of excited ducks"
quail - small gallinaceous game birds
flock - a group of birds
Based on WordNet 3.0, Farlex clipart collection. © 2003-2012 Princeton University, Farlex Inc.

bevy

noun group, company, set, party, band, crowd, troop, pack, collection, gathering, gang, bunch (informal), cluster, congregation, clump, troupe, posse (slang), clique, coterie, assemblage a bevy of little girls
Collins Thesaurus of the English Language – Complete and Unabridged 2nd Edition. 2002 © HarperCollins Publishers 1995, 2002

bevy

noun
A number of individuals making up or considered a unit:
The American Heritage® Roget's Thesaurus. Copyright © 2013, 2014 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
Translations

bevy

[ˈbevɪ] N [of girls, women] → grupo m; [of birds] → bandada f
Collins Spanish Dictionary - Complete and Unabridged 8th Edition 2005 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1971, 1988 © HarperCollins Publishers 1992, 1993, 1996, 1997, 2000, 2003, 2005

bevy

[ˈbɛvi] n
a bevy of [+ people] → une bande de, une troupe de
Collins English/French Electronic Resource. © HarperCollins Publishers 2005

bevy

n (of birds)Schwarm m; (of girls also)Schar f
Collins German Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged 7th Edition 2005. © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1980 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1997, 1999, 2004, 2005, 2007

bevy

[ˈbɛvɪ] nbanda
a bevy of → una banda di
Collins Italian Dictionary 1st Edition © HarperCollins Publishers 1995
References in classic literature ?
him bevy small-e fish-e; Queequeg no kill-e so small-e fish-e; Queequeg kill-e big whale!
If he continue this plan, I shall be able to stay at Grassdale well enough - that is, I shall be able to stay, and that is enough; even an occasional bevy of friends at the shooting season may be borne, if Arthur get so firmly attached to me, so well established in good sense and principles before they come that I shall be able, by reason and affection, to keep him pure from their contaminations.
For on the topmost tier of the hotel verandah, after being carried up the steps in an armchair amid a bevy of footmen, maid-servants, and other menials of the hotel, headed by the landlord (that functionary had actually run out to meet a visitor who arrived with so much stir and din, attended by her own retinue, and accompanied by so great a pile of trunks and portmanteaux)--on the topmost tier of the verandah, I say, there was sitting--THE GRANDMOTHER!
Down the hill I saw a bevy of hussars ride under the railway bridge; three galloped through the open gates of the Oriental College; two others dismounted, and began running from house to house.
The two elder of the brothers were plainly not intending to linger more than a moment, but the spectacle of a bevy of girls dancing without male partners seemed to amuse the third, and make him in no hurry to move on.
One is sitting at a table, in a dry condition, wondering who is going to turn up and buy him a drink, or if his credit is good at some other saloon and if it's worth while to walk that far to find out, when suddenly the saloon doors swing wide, and enters a bevy of well-dressed men, themselves usually wide and exhaling an atmosphere of prosperity and fellowship.
The sight of this bevy of pleasure-seekers, all apparently with multitudes of friends, might have engendered a sense of loneliness in a man of different disposition.
I scolded the stupid fellows well for listening to that tale, which I would not carry to my master; resolving to take a whole bevy up to the Heights, at day-light, and storm it literally, unless the prisoner were quietly surrendered to us.
Above them raced a bevy of screaming, chattering monkeys, hurling taunts and insults at the Mangani, and encouragement and advice to the girl.
As the huntress Diana goes forth upon the mountains of Taygetus or Erymanthus to hunt wild boars or deer, and the wood nymphs, daughters of Aegis-bearing Jove, take their sport along with her (then is Leto proud at seeing her daughter stand a full head taller than the others, and eclipse the loveliest amid a whole bevy of beauties), even so did the girl outshine her handmaids.
Seymour Delafield glanced his eye impatiently around the apartment, as soon as he had paid the customary compliments to the mistress of the mansion and her bevy of fair daughters; but a look of disappointment betrayed the search to be an unsuccessful one.
In less than a minute Eudosia had made her curtsy, and was surrounded, in a corner, by a bevy of young friends, all silent together, and all dying to see me.