to draw a crowd
12
3.5
- phrasal verb
- /drɔː ə kraʊd/
:
atraer multitudes
- They always draw a crowd
- always draws a crowd
- draws a crowd of thousands
- still draws a crowd
You can be that preposterous and draw a crowd.
- You can be that preposterous and draw a crowd.
Examples
-
Rand Paul speaks Thursday at a tea party protest, which drew a crowd of about 200 people.
Blog text (2) -
Why is my breakfast drawing a crowd right now?
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If anyone knows how to draw a crowd, it's me.
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You know they draw a crowd
-
That might draw a crowd, right?
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My, we certainly have drawn a crowd this morning.
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Good, because this stuff tends to draw a crowd.
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His accent alone would draw a crowd.
Fiction book (1991) -
Senator Richard Holt is drawing a crowd wherever he goes these days.
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George Wein can still draw a crowd in New York City.
Synonyms
8
3.6
Attract people or attention
6
7.4
To get people to listen and enjoy what you say
1
2.6
To attract many people to watch a show or event
Antonyms
How Big
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning 'to attract a large group of people' is directly and compositionally derived from 'draw' (to pull in or attract) plus 'crowd' (a large number of people); the indefinite article 'a' is semantically negligible. This simple verb + object construction is cross-linguistically common and follows normal English combinatory patterns, so a B1 learner who knows the constituents should infer the MWE meaning.
Etymology
The phrase draw a crowd comes from the simple picture of draw meaning 'to pull' and crowd meaning a group of people. Imagine a street performer whose show pulls people together into a ring. That's why the phrase means 'to attract a large group of people'.