Hypertext Webster Gateway: "Wander"
From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) (web1913)
Wander \Wan"der\, v. i. [imp. & p. p. {Wandered}; p. pr. & vb.
n. {Wandering}.] [OE. wandren, wandrien, AS. wandrian; akin
to G. wandern to wander; fr. AS. windan to turn. See {Wind}
to turn.]
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.
From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) (web1913)
Wander \Wan"der\, v. t.
To travel over without a certain course; to traverse; to
stroll through. [R.] ``[Elijah] wandered this barren waste.''
--Milton.
From WordNet (r) 1.7 (wn)
wander
v 1: move about aimlessly or without any destination, often in
search of food or employment; "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" [syn: {swan}, {stray}, {tramp},
{roam}, {cast}, {ramble}, {rove}, {range}, {drift}, {vagabond}]
2: be sexually unfaithful to one's partner in marriage; "She
cheats on her husband"; "Might her husband be wandering?"
[syn: {cheat on}, {cheat}, {cuckold}, {betray}]
3: go via an indirect route or at no set pace; "After dinner,
we wandered into town"
4: to move or cause to move in a sinuous, spiral, or circular
course; "the river winds through the hills"; "the path
meanders through the vineyards"; "sometimes, the gout
wanders through the entire body" [syn: {weave}, {wind}, {thread},
{meander}]
5: lose clarity or turn aside esp. from the main subject of
attention or course of argument in writing, thinking, or
speaking; "She always digresses when telling a story";
"her mind wanders"; "Don't digress when you give a
lecture" [syn: {digress}, {stray}, {divagate}]
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