wandering

[won-der-ing]

adjective

1. moving from place to place without a fixed plan; roaming; rambling.

   Crowds of wandering tourists crossed the square.

2. having no permanent residence; nomadic.

   They were historically a wandering people, moving seasonally through the area.

3. meandering; winding.

   They followed a wandering path down the mountain.

noun

1. an aimless roving about; leisurely traveling from place to place.

   For our honeymoon we had a period of delightful wandering through Italy.

2. Usually wanderings.

   1. aimless travels; meanderings.

      Her wanderings took her all over the world.

   2. disordered thoughts or utterances; incoherencies.

      mental wanderings;

      the wanderings of delirium.

3. seemingly aimless or random movement from one place to another by a person with a mental or cognitive disability or impairment.

   Wandering by Alzheimer’s patients is a problem in nursing homes.

Other Word Forms

• wanderingly adverb
• wanderingness noun
• unwandering adjective
• unwanderingly adverb

Word History and Origins

Origin of wandering¹

First recorded before 1000; Middle English (noun, adjective), Old English wandrigende (adjective); wander ( def. ), -ing ² ( def. ), -ing ¹ ( def. )

Example Sentences

I’ve spent spring afternoons, summer weekends, winter nights and fall days wandering around, dining at restaurants that blew me away, and, of course, people watching.

Read more on Salon

But it’s also full of colorful songwriting, of Shires doing tarot with a mermaid, wandering New York listening to Billy Joel or catching her now-former partner behaving nonchalantly on a home security camera.

Read more on Los Angeles Times

Every 10 minutes or so, a gong rang and an announcer proclaimed a new act was set to start — a magic show, a mariachi, a wandering gorilla.

Read more on Los Angeles Times

A wandering elk spotted at dozens of locations across Central Europe this summer has been captured by authorities in Austria and released close to the Czech border.

Read more on BBC

Care staff were supposed to support her and reattach the bag but were often too busy, leaving the woman wandering around the home screaming for help - in one instance for more than an hour.

Read more on BBC

Related Words

• meandering 
• nomadic 
• roving