perambulate
Americanverb (used with object)
-
perambulates,
present (3rd person singular)
-
perambulated,
past participle, past
-
perambulating
present participle
-
to walk through, about, or over; travel through; traverse.
-
to traverse in order to examine or inspect.
verb (used without object)
-
perambulates,
present (3rd person singular)
-
perambulated,
past participle, past
-
perambulating
present participle
verb
-
to walk about (a place)
-
(tr) to walk round in order to inspect
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
perambulatesimple
-
perambulatessimple
-
have perambulatedperfect
-
has perambulatedperfect
-
am perambulatingprogressive
-
are perambulatingprogressive
-
is perambulatingprogressive
-
have been perambulatingperfect progressive
-
has been perambulatingperfect progressive
Past
-
perambulatedsimple
-
had perambulatedperfect
-
was perambulatingprogressive
-
were perambulatingprogressive
-
had been perambulatingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of perambulate
First recorded in 1560–70; from Latin perambulātus, past participle of perambulāre “to walk through”; see origin at per-, ambulate
Explanation
If you're fond of strolling around your neighborhood with no special destination, you like to perambulate. When you walk for the sake of taking a walk, you perambulate. It's an old-fashioned way to describe taking an after-dinner stroll or a meander through the zoo. The Latin word at the root of perambulate is ambulare, "to walk," and the more common word amble shares this origin. Another related word is perambulator, a mainly British term for a baby carriage or stroller, which is shortened to the more familiar pram.
Vocabulary lists containing perambulate
Walk the Walk: Amb
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"What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?" by Frederick Douglass
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"Simon's Saga," Vocabulary from Episode 2
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
There we perambulate amongst different scenery and mobile-order food — masked, socially distant, seeking some watered-down sense of normalcy.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 11, 2021
Dear Jane Austen fans: Run, don’t perambulate, to see “Lovers’ Vows.”
From Washington Post ● Nov. 11, 2019
I follow Nietzsche’s dictum that “only ideas won by walking have any value” and need to perambulate to really get my mind working.
From The Guardian ● Feb. 18, 2017
Muhammad ended many ancient rituals at the Kaaba in Mecca, but continued to let worshippers perambulate around the granite cube.
From Economist ● Jun. 11, 2015
And so Robert was bowed out, to perambulate the streets in rather bitter humour.
From Cedar Creek From the Shanty to the Settlement by Elizabeth Hely Walshe
They in turn are part of a broader florescence of nature-writing in Britain led by Robert Macfarlane, whose book, “The Old Ways”, perambulates around the country’s ancient byways.
From Economist ● Jul. 5, 2018
After another crack on the noggin, Smothers perambulates into the '40s.
From Time Magazine Archive
And as the plot perambulates through three generations, the Kleenex-crumpling goes on and on for the better part of three hours.
From Time Magazine Archive
Volume changes into line, as our eye perambulates.
From Time Magazine Archive
"Do you imagine that she perambulates about the sacred precincts of 'Five Points,' or the purlieus of Chatham Street?"
From Infelice by Augusta J. (Augusta Jane) Evans
The first edition of the Sherlock Holmes' adventure Hound Of The Baskervilles is signed with the comment: "I perambulated Dartmoor before I wrote this book," a reference to the book's setting.
From BBC ● Jul. 9, 2023
In 1884, he perambulated more than 3,000 miles from Ohio to L.A., writing newspaper dispatches along the way and becoming a sympathetic ethnographer of Native American culture.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 19, 2022
I may well have promenaded, pedestrianized, peregrinated, ambulated, perambulated, circumambulated, hoofed, and locomoted ...
From Time Magazine Archive
Everywhere barekneed youngsters in khaki perambulated through the streets with cameras and autograph books.
From Time Magazine Archive
He got out of bed and perambulated the room for some minutes.
From Orthography As Outlined in the State Course of Study for Illinois by Elmer W. Cavins
The route: Start your day by perambulating lazily around the historic Dory Fleet Market, checking out the crab and seafood offerings.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 16, 2024
"It was then reported, that a mad woman was in the habit of disturbing the neighbours, by perambulating the church-yard and other walks, in strange and uncouth dresses," the magazine article added.
From Salon ● Oct. 28, 2022
Why would a perambulating soul wish to miss any of it?
From New York Times ● Dec. 28, 2019
Then Simone Zaza brought the house down by mimicking a man perambulating down a walkway constructed of hot coals, broken glass and bricks of Lego, before blazing the ball way over the bar.
From The Guardian ● Dec. 15, 2016
In the middle of this perambulating he showed up in Patuxet.
From "1491" by Charles C. Mann
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Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
