Word.ws English Dictionary

in droves

in droves prepositional phrase: in large numbers, or great crowds.

Prepositional phrase

  1. (idiomatic) In large numbers, or great crowds.
    • Viewers are switching off news and current affairs programmes in droves with shows such as Panorama, Tonight with Trevor McDonald and even Watchdog failing to connect with audiences, a new report claims.2002 October 31, Owen Gibson, “TV audiences desert news in droves”, in The Guardian
    • The difference to 2020 has been marked. People have returned to the railway in their droves, far faster than the pessimists predicted - especially this year, now that international travel restrictions have been lifted, bringing back foreign tourism.2022 November 30, Paul Bigland, “Destination Oban: a Sunday in Scotland”, in RAIL, number 971, page 79
    Synonyms:
    in spades

Synonyms of in droves

Questions about in droves

What does in droves mean?
In droves means in large numbers, or great crowds.
What part of speech is in droves?
In droves is a prepositional phrase.

Words near in droves in the dictionary

  1. in dire straights
  2. in disguise
  3. in doubt
  4. in drawing
  5. in drink
  6. in droves
  7. in dubio pro reo
  8. in due course
  9. in due time
  10. in duplicate
  11. in dutch

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: in droves (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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