Emily Dickinson Lexicon

SWARM, v.i. [Sax. swearmian; D. zwermen; G. schwärmen; Dan. svermer; Sw. svärma, to swarm, to rove, to wander, to swerve. Note. This, by the common people in New England, is pronounced squirm or squurm, and it is evidently formed on worm, indicating that worm and warm, on which swarm and squirm are formed, are radically the same word. The primary sense is to bend, wind, twist, as a worm or a swarm of bees. It may be formed on the root of veer, vary.]

1. To collect and depart from a hive by flight in a body, as bees. Bees swarm in warm, clear days in summer.
2. To appear or collect in a crowd; to run; to throng together; to congregate in a multitude. In crowds around the swarming people join. – Dryden.
3. To be crowded; to be thronged with a multitude of animals in motion. The forests in America often swarm with wild pigeons. The northern seas in spring swarm with herrings. Every place swarms with soldiers. – Spenser. [Such phrases as “life swarms with ills,” “those days swarmed with fables,” are not legitimate or wholly obsolete. – Brown. Young.]
4. To breed multitudes. – Milton.
5. To climb, as a tree, by embracing it with the arms and legs, and scrambling. At the top was placed a piece of money, as a prize for those who could swarm up and seize it. – Coxe's Russ.