Wander v.

Inflected wandered, wandering. Forms: 1 wandrian, 2–3 wandrie-n, wondrie-n, (wuandre), 3–5 wandri-n, 3 wondri, wundre, 3–6 wandir, -yr, 4 wandur, 4–5 wandre-n, wandere-n, 5 wandery-n, wandry-n, 4– wander. [OE. wandrian = OFris. wondria (WFris. wanderje, NFris. wāneri), MDu. wanderen, Flemish (Kilian) wanderen, MLG. wanderen (LG. wandern), MHG., G. wandern, Norw., Sw. vandra, Da. vandre:—OTeut. *wandrōjan.

  Not recorded in ON. or OHG. The mod. Scandinavian forms are prob. from LG., and possibly also the MHG. and mod.G. forms.

  A similar formation with an l- element occurs with somewhat wider distribution; mod. WFris. wandelje, wannelje, wönlje to wander, MDu. wandelen to change, to wander about (Du. wandelen to walk), OS. wandlon to change (MLG. wandelen to change, LG. wandeln to change), OHG. wantalôn, wantilôn to change, intr. (MHG. wantelen, wandeln, G. wandeln). The form occurs (once) in OE. in wandlung sb. change. Both forms are further related to OTeut. *wend- turn, see WIND v., WEND v. Compare also OE. wandian WONDE v., to deviate, flinch, hesitate etc.]

  I.  Intransitive senses. Formerly often conjugated with to be.

  1.  Of persons or animals: To move hither and thither without fixed course or certain aim; to be (in motion) without control or direction; to roam, ramble, go idly or restlessly about: to have no fixed abode or station.

Fight at Finnesburg (Gr.), 36. Hræfen wandrode sweart and sealobrun.

c. 1000.  Ags. Laws, Instit. Polity, xiv. (Thorpe), II. 322. [Hi] maciað call be luste … woriað & wandriað, & ealne dæʓ fleardiað.

c. 1200.  Trin. Coll. Hom., 35. Vre fo þat is þe deuel wuandreð abuten us.

c. 1275.  Lay., 7241. And Cesar wende in Flandres lond, wandrenge bi see strond.

c. 1290.  Beket, 69, in S. Eng. Leg., 108. In Manie stretes heo hadde i-wandret.

1362.  Langl., P. Pl., A. X. 207. Bote wandren as wolues and wasten ȝif þei mouwen.

c. 1475.  Rauf Coilȝear, 330. With thame ane thousand, and ma, of fensabill men War wanderand all the nicht ouir.

a. 1548.  Hall, Chron., Hen. IV., 28 b. Having knowledge that diverse pirates wer wanderyng on the cost of Englande.

1593.  Shaks., Rich. II., V. vi. 43. With Caine go wander through the shade of night.

1667.  Milton, P. L., VII. 20. On th’ Alcian Field I fill Erroneous there to wander and forlorne.

1697.  Dryden, Virg. Georg., III. 529. Oft the Flocks, without a Leader stray;… Whole Months they wander, grazing as they go.

1711.  Addison, Spect., No. 90, ¶ 3. If one did believe that the departed Souls of Men and Women wandered up and down these lower Regions.

1750.  Gray, Elegy, 11. The mopeing owl does to the moon complain Of such, as wand’ring near her secret bow’r, Molest her ancient solitary reign.

1849.  Macaulay, Hist. Eng., v. I. 596. Hitherto he seems to have wandered from place to place with no other object than that of collecting troops.

1864.  Bryce, Holy Rom. Emp., xv. (1875), 263. Frederick the Third, chased from his capital by the Hungarians, is wandering from convent to convent, an imperial beggar.

1891.  E. Peacock, N. Brendon, II. 15. The ladies were wandering in the garden.

  b.  fig. and in fig. context.

a. 1175.  Cott. Hom., 243. Þas þri fihteð agen elcen ileafful man alse longe se we iðese westen of þesser woruld wandrið.

1357.  Lay Folks’ Catech., 317. And so þis chirche has þre statys be processe of tyme. Fyrst he wandrys here in erthe, and sethen he slepys in purgatory.

c. 1400.  Pety Job, 297, in 26 Pol. Poems, 130. And ofte hym wanteth goddys lore,… And thus he wandreth in a were, As a man blynde, and may nat se.

1555.  Eden, Decades (Arb.), 99. The people of the Ilande … wandered in the ignorance and blyndenes of humane nature.

1653.  J. Taylor (Water P.), Cert. Trav. Uncert. Journey, 8. Some few do travell in the wayes Divine, Some wander wildly with the Muses nine.

1735.  Pope, Prol. Sat., 340. That not in Fancy’s maze he wander’d long, But stoop’d to Truth, and moraliz’d his song.

1875.  Jowett, Plato (ed. 2), IV. 245. [He] can have his talk out, and wander at will from one subject to another.

  c.  with adv., as about, up and down.

1393.  Langl., P. Pl., C. IX. 326. Tho wolde wastour nat worche bote wandrede aboute.

c. 1440.  Promp. Parv., 515/1. Wandryn a-bowte, vagor, girovagor.

1530.  Palsgr., 771/1. How sayest thou, is this a good lyfe to wander up and downe on this maner.

1560.  Daus, trans. Sleidane’s Comm., 316 b. The pore wretch wandred vp and downe with .vi. children.

1598.  Mucedorus, IV. ii. 88. Doubtlesse she hath lost her selfe within these woods, And wandring too and fro she seekes the well, Which yet she cannot finde.

1750.  Johnson, Rambler, No. 33, ¶ 11. Multitudes wandering about they knew not whither, in quest they knew not of what.

1866.  G. Macdonald, Ann. Q. Neighb., xiii. (1878), 245. I used now to wander about in the fields and woods.

1875.  Jowett, Plato (ed. 2), II. 439. I wander up and down, and being in perplexity am always changing my opinion.

  d.  quasi-trans. with cognate object. poet.

a. 1300.  Cursor M., 17232. Foluand þat flexs þat es mi fa, Mi wai i wander in-to wa.

1788.  Burns, Auld Lang Syne, iii. We’ve wander’d mony a weary fit.

1819.  Scott, Noble Moringer, xxv. I’ve wander’d many a weary step, my strength is well-nigh done.

  e.  To go or take one’s way casually or without predetermined route; to go to a place by a devious and leisurely course; to stroll, saunter. Also with forth, out.

1596.  Shaks., Tam. Shr., IV. v. 69. Let me imbrace with old Vincentio, And wander we to see thy honest sonne, Who will of thy arriuall be full ioyous.

1650.  Evelyn, Diary, 4 Aug. I heard a sermon at the Rolls; and in the afternoone wander’d to divers churches.

1667.  Milton, P. L., I. 501. And when Night Darkens the Streets, then wander forth the Sons of Belial.

1715.  De Foe, Fam. Instruct., Introd. (1841), I. 5. The father, walking in a field behind his garden, finds one of his children wandering out.

1840.  Dickens, Old C. Shop, xxvi. And now there remained but to take leave of the poor schoolmaster and wander forth once more.

a. 1873.  R. Buchanan, Ballad of Persephone, xxxiv. Poet. Wks. 1874, I. 56. Til, sweet with greenness, moonlight-kiss’d, she wanders home again.

1888.  F. Hume, Mme. Midas, I. iii. Here and there could be seen the cattle wandering idly homeward.

  ¶ f.  The earlier Wycliffite version of the Bible, and Wyclif himself in his sermons, frequently use wander to render the ambulare of the Vulgate both in lit. and fig. use; in the later version this is rare, walke or go being used instead.

c. 1380.  Wyclif, Sel. Wks., I. 301. And so seiþ Mathew þat Crist wandride [1382 walkyng] bi þe water of Galile. Ibid., II. 348. Þus Poul biddiþ men, Waundre [so 1382; 1383 walke ȝe] in spirit, and do not fulle desires of þe fleishe. Ibid. (1382), John v. 8. Jhesu seith to him, Ryse vp, taak thi bed, and wandre [1388 go]. And a non the man is maad hool, and took vp his bed, and wandride [1388 wente forth].

  2.  Of an inanimate thing: To travel, move or be carried about in an uncertain course; to stray. lit. and fig. Also spec. in Path. and Phys. (cf. WANDERING ppl. a.).

c. 888.  Ælfred, Boeth., xxxvi. § 3. Se [sc. Saturnes steorra] wandraþ ofer oðrum steorrum ufor þonne æniʓ oðer tungol.

a. 1300.  Cursor M., 24857. Þai lete it wandir vp and dun, þair scip ai redi for to drun.

1638.  R. Baker, trans. Balzac’s Lett. (vol. II.), 58. Sir, your letter hath runne great hazarde before it arrived here; It wandred about seven months together.

1764.  Whytt, Observ. Nervous Disorders (1767), 151. In some, the gout wanders through the whole body.

1855.  Macaulay, Hist. Eng., xix. IV. 301. It seems that, in this Committee, which continued to sit many days, the debates wandered over a vast space.

1868.  Milman, St. Paul’s, xix. 480. Thomas Newton’s monument wandered to another Church.

1899.  Allbutt’s Syst. Med., VIII. 487. W. C. Brown of Penang has described (with others) a very peculiar phase in which the œdema beginning in the feet or hands ‘wandered’ up the limb.

1904.  Brit. Med. Jrnl., 10 Sept., 597/1. It seems certain that the great number of cells which are found wandering far and wide in the submucosa, the musculature, and the subserous tissue are not proliferated endothelial cells.

1909.  J. W. Jenkinson, Experim. Embryol., iv. 185. In the next stage the clear vegetative cells derived (presumably) from the micromeres wander in to form the primary mesenchyme.

  indirect passive.  1851.  Mrs. Browning, Casa Guidi Wind., II. 19. We poets, wandered round by dreams.

  b.  Of persons, with reference to movement of part of the body only.

1726.  Pope, Odyss., XXIV. 374. He seiz’d him with a strict embrace, With thousand kisses wander’d o’er his face.

1831.  G. P. R. James, Phil. Augustus, xix. The hand which held the letter before his eyes dropped to his side; and with the fingers of the other he wandered thoughtfully over his brow.

  c.  Of rumors, current opinions, etc.: To be in circulation (on uncertain evidence or authority). Also † to wander it.

a. 1547.  Surrey, Æneid, II. 25. The fame wherof so wandred it at point.

a. 1548.  Hall, Chron., Edw. IV., 241 b. And this immaginacion in especiall, wandred through the heddes of all men.

1831.  W. L. Bowles, Thomas Ken, II. Introd. 7. I am informed by … the Bishop of Hereford,… that there wandered, in his early days, another report of this story.

1849.  Macaulay, Hist. Eng., ix. II. 515. There was no evidence which could be laid before a jury or a court martial: but strange whispers wandered about the camp.

  d.  Of the eyes: To turn this way and that; to rove. Hence, of the vision: To pass (idly or restlessly) from one point to another; to traverse a field of view (erratically or vaguely).

1574.  Hellowes, Gueuara’s Fam. Ep. (1584), 344. After the manner of a drunkard, that venteth for the best wine: so doe mine eyes stare and wander to finde out some olde Sepulture.

1663.  Gerbier, Counsel, 25. His eyes must wander about every workmans hands.

1704.  J. Pitts, Relig. & Mann. Mahommetans, vi. 42. Fixing their Eyes on the Ground just before them, not in the least gadding or wandring with their Eyes.

1794.  Mrs. Radcliffe, Myst. Udolpho, i. Their eyes wandered over the glorious scene.

1848.  Dickens, Dombey, xlii. Mr. Dombey … looked round at the pictures on the walls. Cursorily as his cold eye wandered over them, Carker’s keen glance accompanied his.

1863.  P. Barry, Dockyard Econ., 231. As the eye of the visitor wanders curiously over its ample dimensions.

  e.  Of the mind, thoughts, desires, etc. (usually personified, and conceived as moving without the direction of reason or will towards, or about, the objects of their consideration): To move (hither and thither) uncontrolled.

c. 1400.  Pety Job, 471, in 26 Pol. Poems, 136. My thoughtes wandre wyde whare, For they ben, lorde, full variaunte.

1526.  Pilgr. Perf. (W. de W., 1531), 167. They wyll not let theyr myndes … wauer or wander abrode.

1577.  Grange, Golden Aphrod., etc., R ij b. Where are thy wittes…? If so they wandring be abrode, then call them home againe.

1634.  Sir T. Herbert, Trav., 2. If my thoughts haue wandred, I must intreat the wel-bred Reader to remember, I haue wandred through many deserts.

1667.  Milton, P. L., II. 148. Those thoughts that wander through Eternity, To perish rather.

1742.  Young, Nt. Th., I. 107. Why wanders wretched thought their tombs around, In infidel distress?

1837.  Dickens, Pickw., xxii. Then his mind reverted to Mrs. Martha Bardell; and from that lady it wandered, by a natural process, to the dingy counting-house of Dodson and Fogg.

1884.  W. C. Smith, Kildrostan, 55. The mind was wandering, as it often does On the dim verge of life.

1888.  ‘J. S. Winter,’ Bootle’s Childr., iv. Her poor, anxious, distraught mind wandering hither and thither in the bewildering mazes of delirium.

  f.  Of rivers, roads, etc.: To pursue a devious or circuitous course; to wind, meander.

1742.  Gray, Eton, 9. Wanders the hoary Thames along His silver-winding way.

1831.  G. P. R. James, Philip Augustus, xxxiii. The hills which confine the course of the Seine fall back … and leave it to wander through a wide rich valley.

1858.  Kingsley, Misc. (1859), I. 144. You will find … ‘deep glooms and sudden glories,’ in every foot-broad rill which wanders through the turf.

1883.  R. W. Dixon, Mano, I. vi. 16. There fountains sprang, and runnels wandered clean.

  3.  Of persons (or things completely, or in part, personified): To deviate from a given path, or determined course; to turn aside from a mark or object proposed; to stray from one’s home or company, or from protection or control.

1500–20.  Dunbar, Poems, v. 8. And sa to hevin the hieway dreidless scho wend, Ȝit scho wanderit, and ȝeid by to ane elriche well.

1538.  Elyot, Dict., Aberro, to erre or wander very moche.

1594.  Hooker, Eccl. Pol., I. iii. § 2. If the Moone should wander from her beaten way.

1606.  Shaks., Tr. & Cr., I. iii. 95. When the Planets In euill mixture to disorder wander.

1611.  Bible, Deut. xxvii. 18. Cursed be hee that maketh the blinde to wander out of the way.

1617.  Moryson, Itin., I. 205. One day … he hunted and wandring from his company lost himselfe.

a. 1761.  Law, Comf. Weary Pilgr. (1809), 123. For every son of Adam has everything in him that is said of that prodigal, he has lost his first state and condition, as he did, is wandered as far from his heavenly father and country.

1875.  Scrivener, Lect. Text N. T., 5. His eye may have wandered from one line to another.

1888.  Stevenson, Black Arrow, I. vii. It became difficult to choose a path, and the lads somewhat wandered.

1905.  Times Lit. Suppl., 15 Sept., 292/1. It is impossible to wander in an avenue.

  b.  fig. or in fig. context: Of persons (also of the mind, thoughts, desires, etc., personified): To turn aside from a purpose, from a determined course of conduct, or train of thought; to digress; to pass out of the control of reason or conscience; to fall into error (moral or intellectual), etc. Often with away, off, etc.

c. 897.  K. Ælfred, Gregory’s Past. C., liii. 415. Ðonne hwelces monnes mod … færð swa wandriende from his hade & of his endebyrdnesse [L. extra ordinem proprium vagatur].

1450–1530.  Myrr. our Ladye, II. 249. And many of them wrongly wandrynge from the ryghtnes of faythe.

1565.  J. Hall, Crt. Vertue, 29 b. That each estate May vnderstande howe farre awrye They wandred be from righteousnes, The lyuing God that doe denye.

1596.  Shaks., 1 Hen. IV., III. ii. 27. I may, for somethings true, wherein my youth Hath faultie wandred, and irregular, Finde pardon on my true submission. Ibid. (1613), Hen. VIII., III. i. 138. Madam, you wander from the good We ayme at.

1638.  Junius, Paint. Ancients, 11. It is then expedient that we should not wander, but rather follow a setled short way, easie both for learners and teachers.

1675.  J. Owen, Indwelling Sin, v. (1732), 38. Look to thy self, take care of thy Affections, they will be gadding and wandring, and that from their Aversation to what thou hast in hand.

1716.  Lady M. W. Montagu, Let. Pope, 14 Sept. I have … so far wandered from the discipline of the church of England as to have been last Sunday at the opera.

1737.  Whiston, Josephus, Antiq., Diss. I. § 18. So far was his mind wander’d from the right way, that even he was not a believer, as to what he himself said.

1771.  Junius Lett., 30 Jan. Having travelled thus far in the high road of matter of fact, I may now be permitted to wander a little into the field of imagination.

1879.  Miss Braddon, Cloven Foot, x. John Treverton, smoking his cigar, and letting his thoughts wander away at a tangent every now and then.

1898.  Flor. Montgomery, Tony, i. 21. She could not read her novel with any peace of mind; and she found her attention wandering from it.

1911.  Marett, Anthropol., 173. But we must not wander off into questions of origin. It is enough … to have noted the fact that, [etc.].

  4.  Of persons: To be unsettled, or incoherent, in mind, purpose, etc. Hence, later, to be temporarily disordered in mind, as from illness or exhaustion affecting the brain; to be delirious, or (with especial reference to the resulting incoherence of speech) to ramble, rave, talk wildly.

c. 1400.  Destr. Troy, 8883. Oft [I] wandrit, & woke, & in my wit caste; And my person enpayret, pynet me sore, For thes lordes þat I lede, and the ledis all. Ibid., 10097. The buerne to his bed buskit anon,… And lay in his loge, litill he sleppit, But wandrit & woke for woo of his buernes.

1718.  S. Sewall, Diary, 6 Feb. This morning wandering [but perh. read wondering] in my mind whether to live a Single or a Married Life.

1833.  T. Hook, Parson’s Dau., II. iv. She must have wandered—she must have been dreaming.

1840.  Dickens, Old C. Shop, xxiv. They said he was wandering in his head yesterday.

1843.  R. J. Graves, Syst. Clin. Med., xiv. 166. On awaking about eleven o’clock, he was wandering.

1876.  Black, Madcap Violet, xxxvii. He wanders a little, you know, as a feverish person will, when he speaks to you.

1898.  P. Manson, Trop. Diseases, xvii. 273. The patient may wander or pass into a comatose state.

  II.  Transitive senses.

  5.  To roam over, in, through (a place); to traverse in wandering. Now only poet.

1573.  L. Lloyd, Pilgr. Princes, 104 b. For in the night before Cicero dreamed, being banished from Rome, that he wandred diuers straunge countries.

1590.  Spenser, F. Q., I. vii. 28. High ouer hils, and low adowne the dale, She wandred many a wood, and measurd many a vale.

1671.  Milton, P. R., I. 354. Forty days Eliah without food Wandred this barren waste.

1682.  Luttrell, Brief Rel. (1897), I. 246. Chusing rather to wander the wide world then undergoe (as they call it) such persecution.

1798.  Bloomfield, Farmer’s Boy, Winter, 390. Seedtime and Harvest let me see again; Wander the leaf-strewn wood, the frozen plain.

1892.  Yeats, Countess Cathleen, v. (1912), 108.

  6.  To cause to wander, lead astray; also fig. to confuse in mind, bewilder. Chiefly colloq. or humorous.

1897.  Flandrau, Harvard Episodes, 319. He meant to … ‘wander’ her like a cat in a strange wood.

1899.  W. E. H[enley], in Pall Mall Mag., Aug., 579. Nay, it wanders him to worse purpose yet; for it even makes him say that, if [etc.].

1899.  Crockett, Kit Kennedy, xlviii. Mary was conscious that she was not doing herself justice…. So she smiled. That smile ‘wandered’ the assistant. He promptly lost grip.

1914.  N. Munro, New Road, xxx. ‘Ye’ve knocked the feet from me!’ he said in a voice depressed. ‘I’m fairly wandered.’