Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary · 1913

Swarm

Swarm , intransitive verb

[Compare Swerve.]

To climb a tree, pole, or the like, by embracing it with the arms and legs alternately. See Shin. [Colloquial]
At the top was placed a piece of money, as a prize for those who could swarm up and seize it. — W. Coxe

Swarm , noun

[Old English swarm, Anglo-Saxon swearm; akin to Dutch zwerm, German schwarm, Old High German swaram, Icelandic svarmr a tumult, Swedish svarm a swarm, Danish svaerm, and German schwirren to whiz, to buzz, Sanskrit svar to sound, and perhaps to English swear. r177. Compare Swerve, Swirl.]

1.
A large number or mass of small animals or insects, especially when in motion.
A deadly swarm of hornets. — Milton
2.
Especially, a great number of honeybees which emigrate from a hive at once, and seek new lodgings under the direction of a queen; a like body of bees settled permanently in a hive.
A swarm of bees. — Chaucer
3.
Hence, any great number or multitude, as of people in motion, or sometimes of inanimate objects; as, a swarm of meteorites.
Those prodigious swarms that had settled themselves in every part of it [Italy]. — Addison

Swarm , intransitive verb

1.
To collect, and depart from a hive by flight in a body; -- said of bees; as, bees swarm in warm, clear days in summer.
2.
To appear or collect in a crowd; to throng together; to congregate in a multitude. — Chaucer
3.
To be crowded; to be thronged with a multitude of beings in motion.
Every place swarms with soldiers. — Spenser
4.
To abound; to be filled (with). — Atterbury
5.
To breed multitudes.
Not so thick swarmed once the soil Bedropped with blood of Gorgon. — Milton

Swarm , transitive verb

To crowd or throng. — Fanshawe