wander

From Middle English wandren, wandrien, from Old English wandrian (“to wander, roam, fly around, hover; change; stray, err”), from Proto-West Germanic *wandarōn (“to wander”), from *wandōn (“to turn, change”) +‎ *-rōn (frequentative suffix). Cognate with Scots wander (“to wander”), German wandern (“to wander, roam, hike, migrate”), Dutch wandelen (“to wander, roam, hike, migrate”), Danish vandre (“to wander, roam, hike, migrate”), Swedish vandra (“to wander, hike”).

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈwɒndə/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈwɑndɚ/
• (West Midlands, especially Birmingham) IPA^(key): /ˈwʊndə/, IPA^(key): /ˈwʌndə/

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• Rhymes: -ɒndə(ɹ)
• Hyphenation: wan‧der

wander (third-person singular simple present 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.

   Synonym: cheat

4. (intransitive) To go somewhere indirectly or at varying speeds; to move in a curved path.
5. (intransitive) Of the mind, to lose focus or clarity of argument or attention.

   Synonym: drift

wander (countable and uncountable, plural wanders)

1. (countable) An act or instance of wandering.

   to go for a wander in the park

2. (uncountable) The situation where a value or signal etc. deviates from the correct or normal value.

   Hyponym: polar wander

   baseline wander in ECG signals

• Andrew, Darwen, Warden, drawne, warden, warned

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wander

1. inflection of wandern:
   1. first-person singular present
   2. singular imperative