- pack#
- pack n *bundle, bunch, package, packet, bale, parcelpack vb Pack, crowd, cram, stuff, ram, tamp are comparable when they mean to fill tightly or cause to fill tightly something which holds a limited amount or presents a limited space.Pack, in its basic sense, implies a forming into packs or bundles for convenience in storing or transporting{
oranges are packed in crates for shipment
}{pack books in cartons before moving them
}{in this factory huge quantities of meat are processed, packed, and shipped to all parts of the country
}Additionally it may imply close, orderly arrangement in receptacles of determined size, and, as a corollary, compact and complete filling. In extended use it may suggest completeness of filling or, frequently, an excessive or uncomfortable filling, without any relation to the ideas of storing or transporting{the play packed the theater
}{the crowd in the bus was packed in like sardines
}{packs an extraordinary amount of information into a few pages— Times Lit. Sup.
}Crowd (see also PRESS) implies the presence of great numbers of persons or things in proportion to the space, area, or time; the term often suggests numbers so great as to press upon or otherwise seriously inconvenience{the harbor was crowded with ships
}{crowd more persons into a hall than it can safely hold
}{in revolutions men live fast: the experience of years is crowded into hours— Macaulay
}{the road .. . was now crowded with people who had come up the hill for their Sunday afternoon walk— Archibald Marshall
}{his mind was crowded with the detail he observed— Nevil Shute
}Cram carries a similar implication of pressing so as to bruise or squeeze, but the word usually also suggests a forcible and, sometimes, disorderly insertion into a receptacle or space of more than it can easily or comfortably or safely take{cram a trunk full of clothes
}{their storehouses crammed with grain— Shak.
}crammed his head full of knowledge}{cram for an examination
}{most of the newcomers arrive with only such means as can be crammed into a bundle or two— Hersey
}Stuff implies the use of such a material as padding, wadding, or straw in expanding or distending{stuff a pillow with feathers
}{stuff a mattress with straw
}From this specific meaning comes the more general meaning of to fill so that a thing bulges or so that the filling protrudes{stuffed his purse with bills
}{stuff a turkey with dressing
}{I have stuffed too many of the facts of history and science into my intellectuals— L. P. Smith
}{as many hot hors d'oeuvres as the greediest guest could stuff into himself— Wouk
}Ram nearly always retains some notion of its basic implication of pounding and tamping{ram home the charge in a muzzle-loading firearm by means of a ramrod
}but this implication is sometimes obscured or subordinated and that of stuffing or cramming as if by pounding in is stressed{ram tobacco into his pipe
}{I always ram my clothes into a box— Bury
}{pronging great slices of meat onto his fork and ramming them into his mouth— Bruce Marshall
}Tamp, which often comes close to ram in meaning, originally meant and still means to plug up a drill hole above a blasting charge with clay, earth, or similar material. In its extended use it implies a series of blows which press something into a confined space or under, over, or about another thing that needs to be supported{tamping the gravel back around the ties— Laird
}{tamp tobacco into his pipe
}
New Dictionary of Synonyms. 2014.
