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Glite Dictionary
to beat the crowd

to beat the crowd

2 3.2
Arrive before most people to avoid large groups
  • phrasal verb
translation icon : llegar antes que la multitud
  • Ditto Rita - I usually do my holiday shopping by Monday—beat the crowds—and as my grocer pointed out, you are still buying the same produce Monday or Wednesday.
  • early enough to beat the crowd
  • way to beat the crowd
  • go early to beat the crowd

Mostly we got here to the eclipse place, or there to the eclipse place six hours early to beat the crowds and get a place to park.

Examples

  • We had gotten there early to beat the crowds.

    Blog text (7)

  • "We could beat the crowd."

    Fiction book (1992)

  • I like to beat the crowds.

    The Vault (2017)

  • Being in one of the ballrooms made it tight, so I am glad we beat the crowds.

    Blog text (26)

  • Mostly we got here to the eclipse place, or there to the eclipse place six hours early to beat the crowds and get a place to park.

    DoctorRamani

  • If we leave now, we can beat the crowd at the concert.

  • She always tries to beat the crowd by arriving at the event early.

  • To get the best seats, they decided to beat the crowd by leaving an hour ahead of time.

Antonyms

to arrive late
9 1.3

Get to a place or event after the time you were expected to be there

How Early

to beat the crowd
2 3.2
to arrive
∞ 1.0

Surface Forms

beat the crowd infinitive
beat the crowded past
beat the crowded past participle
beating the crowd present participle
beats the crowd third person singular

Morphology

beat + the + crowd

The meaning 'arrive before most others to avoid large groups' is directly derivable from 'beat' in the sense 'to do something before or outdo someone' combined with 'crowd' meaning a group of people. This is a common compositional pattern (beat + NP) and follows standard English usage, so a B1 learner who knows the constituents can reasonably infer the meaning.

Etymology

The phrase beat the crowd paints a simple picture: imagine you beat a big crowd by arriving early at a shop, station, or event so you do not have to wait or push through people. So beat the crowd means 'to arrive before most others to avoid large groups'.