wander Meaning, Definition & Usage

  1. verb move about aimlessly or without any destination, often in search of food or employment
    ramble; stray; cast; swan; drift; tramp; range; rove; roam; vagabond; roll.
    • The gypsies roamed the woods
    • roving vagabonds
    • the wandering Jew
    • The cattle roam across the prairie
    • the laborers drift from one town to the next
    • They rolled from town to town
  2. verb be sexually unfaithful to one's partner in marriage
    cheat; cuckold; cheat on; betray.
    • She cheats on her husband
    • Might her husband be wandering?
  3. verb go via an indirect route or at no set pace
    • After dinner, we wandered into town
  4. verb to move or cause to move in a sinuous, spiral, or circular course
    meander; thread; wind; weave.
    • the river winds through the hills
    • the path meanders through the vineyards
    • sometimes, the gout wanders through the entire body
  5. verb lose clarity or turn aside especially from the main subject of attention or course of argument in writing, thinking, or speaking
    digress; divagate; stray.
    • She always digresses when telling a story
    • her mind wanders
    • Don't digress when you give a lecture

WordNet

Wan"der intransitive verb
Etymology
OE. wandren, wandrien, AS. wandrian; akin to G. wandern to wander; fr. AS. windan to turn. See Wind to turn.
Wordforms
imperfect & past participle Wandered ; present participle & verbal noun Wandering
Definitions
  1. To ramble here and there without any certain course or with no definite object in view; to range about; to stroll; to rove; as, to wander over the fields.
    They wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins. Heb. xi. 37.
    He wandereth abroad for bread. Job xv. 23.
  2. To go away; to depart; to stray off; to deviate; to go astray; as, a writer wanders from his subject.
    When God caused me to wander from my father's house. Gen. xx. 13.
    O, let me not wander from thy commandments. Ps. cxix. 10.
  3. To be delirious; not to be under the guidance of reason; to rave; as, the mind wanders. Syn. -- To roam; rove; range; stroll; gad; stray; straggly; err; swerve; deviate; depart.
Wan"der transitive verb
Definitions
  1. To travel over without a certain course; to traverse; to stroll through. R. "[Elijah] wandered this barren waste." Milton.

Webster 1913