lost in the crowd
- idiom
- That being said, with the plethora of comments today, mine will probably get lost in the crowd!
- get lost in the crowd
Examples
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Never let yourself get lost in the crowd then, or buried in oblivion.
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Lost in the crowd, I spied and maneuvered my way next to Walter.
Fiction book (1990) -
And he walked away in the rain and was lost in the crowd.
Fiction book (1998) -
Didn't want to get lost in the crowd.
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As statistics necessarily need large samples to be more accurate, individual people are lost in the crowd.
Blog text (17) -
Sure enough, this was a saving grace when one was lost in the crowd at an amusement park.
Blog text (21) -
Kate and Leopold dance, the music swells as they become lost in the crowd.
Fiction book (2001) -
As the concert ended, many fans felt lost in the crowd while trying to find their friends.
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During the parade, she realized she was lost in the crowd and couldn't see the floats anymore.
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He sometimes felt lost in the crowd at the busy market, surrounded by so many people.
Synonyms
People do not notice it because someone keeps it quiet
Missed when people are busy or things are disorganized
Not heard or understood because of loud noise
Antonyms
How Noticeable
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning 'not able to be noticed or found because there are many people around' is directly and compositionally derived from 'lost' (not found) + 'in' (within) + 'crowd' (a large group of people); the definite article 'the' does not affect predictability. This spatial/figurative composition is common across languages and follows regular English patterns, so a B1 learner who knows the constituents would readily infer the MWE meaning.
Etymology
The phrase lost in the crowd comes from the simple picture of a person who is lost among a large crowd of people and cannot be seen. That's why it means 'not noticed' or 'unable to be found'.