wander
see also: Wander
Etymology

From Middle English wandren, wandrien, from Old English wandrian, from Proto-West Germanic *wandarōn, from *wandōn + *-rōn.

Pronunciation
  • (RP) IPA: /ˈwɒndə/
  • (America) IPA: /ˈwɑndɚ/
  • (West Midlands, especially, Birmingham) IPA: /ˈwʊndə/, IPA: /ˈwʌndə/
Verb

wander (wanders, present participle wandering; simple past and past participle wandered)

  1. (intransitive) To move without purpose or specified destination; often in search of livelihood.
    Synonyms: err, roam
    to wander over the fields
    • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC ↗, Hebrews 11:37 ↗:
      They wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins.
    • 1907 August, Robert W[illiam] Chambers, chapter IX, in The Younger Set, New York, N.Y.: D. Appleton & Company, →OCLC ↗:
      “A tight little craft,” was Austin’s invariable comment on the matron; […]. ¶ Near her wandered her husband, orientally bland, invariably affable, and from time to time squinting sideways, as usual, in the ever-renewed expectation that he might catch a glimpse of his stiff, retroussé moustache.
    • 1915, G[eorge] A. Birmingham [pseudonym; James Owen Hannay], chapter I, in Gossamer, New York, N.Y.: George H. Doran Company, →OCLC ↗:
      There is an hour or two, after the passengers have embarked, which is disquieting and fussy. […] Stewards, carrying cabin trunks, swarm in the corridors. Passengers wander restlessly about or hurry, with futile energy, from place to place.
  2. (intransitive) To stray; stray from one's course; err.
    A writer wanders from his subject.
    • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC ↗, Psalms cxix:10 ↗:
      O, let me not wander from thy commandments.
  3. (intransitive) To commit adultery.
    Synonyms: cheat
  4. (intransitive) To go somewhere indirectly or at varying speeds; to move in a curved path.
    Synonyms: drift
  5. (intransitive) Of the mind, to lose focus or clarity of argument or attention.
    Synonyms: distract, scatter
Translations Translations Translations Translations Translations Noun

wander

  1. (countable) An act or instance of wandering.
    to go for a wander in the park
  2. (uncountable, of a value, signal or similar) Deviation from a correct or normal value.
    Hyponym: polar wander
    baseline wander in ECG signals
Translations
Wander
Proper noun
  1. Surname.



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