GREGARIOUS

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does gregarious mean? 

• GREGARIOUS (adjective)
  The adjective GREGARIOUS has 3 senses:

1. (of animals) tending to form a group with others of the same species

2. instinctively or temperamentally seeking and enjoying the company of others

3. (of plants) growing in groups that are close together

  Familiarity information: GREGARIOUS used as an adjective is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• GREGARIOUS (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

(of animals) tending to form a group with others of the same species

Context example:

gregarious bird species

Similar:

social (tending to move or live together in groups or colonies of the same kind)

Also:

social (living together or enjoying life in communities or organized groups)

Attribute:

gregariousness (the quality of being gregarious--having a dislike of being alone)

Domain category:

animal; animate being; beast; brute; creature; fauna (a living organism characterized by voluntary movement)

Antonym:

ungregarious ((of animals) not gregarious)

Derivation:

gregariousness (the quality of being gregarious--having a dislike of being alone)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Instinctively or temperamentally seeking and enjoying the company of others

Context example:

he is a gregarious person who avoids solitude

Similar:

social (living together or enjoying life in communities or organized groups)

Derivation:

gregariousness (the quality of being gregarious--having a dislike of being alone)

Sense 3

Meaning:

(of plants) growing in groups that are close together

Similar:

clustered (growing close together but not in dense mats)

Domain category:

flora; plant; plant life ((botany) a living organism lacking the power of locomotion)

Antonym:

ungregarious ((of plants) growing together in groups that are not close together)

 Context examples 

The horse is a very gregarious creature.

(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Well, at least you are better than that herd of swine in Vienna, whose gregarious grunt is, however, not more offensive than the isolated effort of the British hog.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

On the other hand, he was human, and his gregarious need for companionship remained unsatisfied.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

Young lady, I am disposed to be gregarious and communicative to-night.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

But he knew, further, that the comfort of the fire would be his, the protection of the gods, the companionship of the dogs—the last, a companionship of enmity, but none the less a companionship and satisfying to his gregarious needs.

(White Fang, by Jack London)

He did not know that he was himself possessed of unusual brain vigor; nor did he know that the persons who were given to probing the depths and to thinking ultimate thoughts were not to be found in the drawing rooms of the world's Morses; nor did he dream that such persons were as lonely eagles sailing solitary in the azure sky far above the earth and its swarming freight of gregarious life.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

They pointed out the fish and dead birds lying about among the rocks as proving the nature of the food of these creatures, and I heard them congratulating each other on having cleared up the point why the bones of this flying dragon are found in such great numbers in certain well-defined areas, as in the Cambridge Green-sand, since it was now seen that, like penguins, they lived in gregarious fashion.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

I am disposed to be gregarious and communicative to-night, he repeated, and that is why I sent for you: the fire and the chandelier were not sufficient company for me; nor would Pilot have been, for none of these can talk.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)