to teem

Examples

• All

• This place is teeming with single mothers, single fathers, bisexuals, surrogates, and they're all lovely.

  Bridget Jones's Baby (2016)

• A place teeming with animals to hunt.

  Out of Darkness (2024)

• Bromeliads flower and insects teem, but I see very few people.

  Academic text (2008)

• Jack walks in, looks around; the store is teeming with activity, a post-holiday sale in progress.

  Fiction book (2000)

• For most of the year, the Gulf of Mexico is teeming with marine life, from tiny crustaceans to massive baleen whales.

• The tottering vehicle weaves through streets teeming with bicycles, three-wheeled cyclos, motorbikes, and an occasional car.

  Fiction book (2000)

• The market was teeming with shoppers eager to find the best deals.

• During the summer festival, the streets were teeming with visitors enjoying the festivities.

• The pond was teeming with frogs, their croaks filling the air on warm evenings.

Synonyms

S

to swarm

vsto teem

89 3.2

To move to a place in large numbers and make it busy

describes a place being full rather than the incoming movement that causes it

P

to pullulate with

vsto teem

• Archaic

9.6

Be full of many people or things

is the same filling idea expressed more generally as being full or swarming

P

to pullulate

vsto teem

• Archaic

9.9

To appear and grow in very large numbers, like plants or insects

focuses on being full or crowded rather than on growth or lively multiplication

Phrasal Verbs

T

to teem in

5.9

To be full of many people or things in a place

How Abundant

to overflow

43 2.9

swarm

42 3.4

to teem

37 6.0

to abound

52 4.2

Surface Forms

Etymology