Mob

n. [Lat. mobile vulgus, the movable common people; mobilis, movable, changeable, and vulgus, the common people, populace. See MOBILE.] A riotous assembly; a disorderly crowd; a collection of people for some riotous and unlawful purpose.

Had every Athenian citizen been a Socrates, every Athenian assembly would still have been a mob. Madison.

Synonyms—Populace; crowd; assembly.—MOB, POPULACE. Populace signifies the lower orders of the people taken collectively; a mob is a riotous assembly of persons. A mob may be gathered and dispersed in an hour; the populace is a permanent portion of society. “Kings are ambitious, the nobility haughty, and the populace tumultuous and ungovernable.” Burke. “He shrunk from the dangers that threatened him, and sacrificed his conscience and his duty to the menaces of a mob.” Porteus.

Mob law, law administered by the mob; lynch-law.—Mob story, a popular or vulgar story.

[imp. & p. p. MOBBED; p. pr. & vb. n. MOBBING.] To attack in a disorderly crowd; to harass tumultuously.

n. A mob-cap. See MOB-CAP.