wander — OET · Shobdo

wander

verb

1 you can spend the afternoon wandering around the estate:

stroll, amble, saunter, walk, dawdle, potter, ramble, maunder, meander;

roam, rove, range, knock about, knock around, drift, coast, gallivant, gad about, prowl, mill about, mill round, mill around;

trek, trudge, stretch one's legs;

Scottish, & Irish stravaig;

informal traipse, mosey, tootle;

British, informal mooch, bimble;

rare peregrinate.

2 he had wandered away from his mates | we are wandering from the point:

stray, depart, diverge, veer, swerve, deviate, digress, vary, drift, get separated, get sidetracked, go wool-gathering;

rare divagate.

3 the child wandered off when we weren't looking:

get lost, lose one's way, go off course, lose one's bearings, go astray, go off at a tangent.

4 the narrow road wanders along the foreshore:

meander, wind, twist, turn, curve, zigzag, bend, snake, worm.

5 he was wandering now, his voice had dropped as he struggled to keep his thread:

be incoherent, ramble, babble, talk nonsense, rave, be delirious.

noun

stroll, amble, saunter, walk, roam, meander, dawdle, potter, ramble;

gallivant, prowl, drift, maunder, promenade, constitutional;

turn, breather, airing, trek, trudge;

informal traipse, mosey, tootle;

British, informal mooch;

rare perambulation, peregrination.

choose the right word

wander, roam, rove, range, stray

These words all denote walking or moving in some way that is not a direct line. Some imply more energy and purpose than others.

■ Wandering denotes movement that is not purposefully directed towards a particular goal. This lack of purpose may result from indecision or lack of energy, or may simply indicate that someone is not in a hurry (she wandered aimlessly about the living room | wandering around looking at different displays).

■ Those who roam move around with little forward planning but generally show more energy than the wanderer (packs of savage dogs roamed the streets | dark lanes where gangs roamed).

■ Rove is a rather old-fashioned word meaning ‘travel constantly without a fixed long-term destination’ (he had roved the district in search of cinematic distraction) but is now most commonly used as roving, which conveys quite a strong sense of purpose (a roving busload of activists who went all over Europe). Roving often means ‘employed to work in many different places’ (communication with a roving agent was always fraught with difficulties).

■ Range is a less common word, indicating movement that is free from restrictions or constraints and is usually over a wide area but is nevertheless purposeful (railway entrepreneurs ranged the globe in search of trade | they ranged over the Pacific in outriggers).

■ Stray denotes movement away from where one should be (if you stray off the route it's almost impossible to get back | for an instant her tired mind strayed), or into a wrong or inappropriate place (the military arrested anyone who strayed into the exclusion zone).

wander Oxford Dictionary of English