stampeding

Verb

stampede (third-person singular simple present stampedes, present participle stampeding, simple past and past participle stampeded)

1. (transitive) To cause (a drove or herd of animals) to run away or scamper in a wild, headlong manner, usually due to fright.
   • Cattle are usually quiet after dark. Still I've known even a coyote to stampede your white herd.1912 January, Zane Grey, “Amber Spring”, in Riders of the Purple Sage […], New York, N.Y.; London: Harper & Brothers Publishers, →OCLC, page 35
2. (transitive) To cause animals (owned by a person) to run away or scamper in this manner.

   Synonyms:

   stampedo

3. (broadly, transitive) To cause (people in a crowd) to move in the same direction at the same time, especially due to panic.
4. (broadly, transitive) To cause (an individual) to act hastily or rashly.
   • I was stampeded into buying an unnecessary insurance against earthquakes, fires, and flooding.
5. (figuratively, transitive) To cause (people) to act in a sudden unconcerted manner due to, or as if due to, some common impulse.
6. (intransitive) Of a drove or herd of animals: to run away or scamper in a wild, headlong manner, usually due to fright.
   • Miss Withersteen, let me get what boys I can gather, an' hold the white herd. It's on the slope now, not ten miles out—three thousand head, an' all steers. They're wild, an' likely to stampede at the pop of a jack-rabbit's ears.1912 January, Zane Grey, “The Mill-wheel of Steers”, in Riders of the Purple Sage […], New York, N.Y.; London: Harper & Brothers Publishers, →OCLC, page 69

See all 12 meanings of stampede