Showing results for "meandering"

• present participle of meander.

meandering

American  

[mee-an-der-ing] / miˈæn dər ɪŋ /

adjective

1. taking a winding or indirect course.

   The city of Budapest is divided into two parts by the meandering Danube River, spanned by several stunning bridges.

2. wandering aimlessly; proceeding seemingly without direction; rambling.

   I'm unsure how I will condense a meandering narrative of my experiences into a thirty-second elevator pitch.

   Things proceed in a meandering way between them, until suddenly their relationship comes to a devastatingly emotional climax.

---

noun

1. the act of wandering or proceeding aimlessly or by a winding or indirect course.

   I digress—but I blame it on the mental meandering of age.

   After a coffee and some meandering among the displays on the hotel mezzanine, I left the convention.

Other Word Forms

• unmeandering
  adjective
• meanderingly
  adverb
• unmeanderingly
  adverb

Etymology

Origin of meandering

First recorded in 1610–20; meander ( def. ) + -ing ² ( def. ) for the adjective senses; meander ( def. ) + -ing ¹ ( def. ) for the noun sense

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

meandering

The meandering floor plan, with its rooms of various sizes and orientations alongside their resulting passageways and corners, demands that you wander, not map, your perusal of the galleries.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 17, 2026

It also shows that evolution rarely follows a straight path, instead meandering through the ever-changing conditions on our planet.

From Science Daily ● May 21, 2026

His lines are lazy, woozy, all-forgiving reportage about the seasons’ slow parade, the meandering ongoingness of our world: arrival, decay and the modest glory in between.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 16, 2026

Since then, the 79-year-old Republican has rarely missed an opportunity to discuss the project, frequently meandering in mid-speech on other topics to riff about the architectural details of the proposed facility.

From Barron's ● Mar. 31, 2026

Celaena didn’t hear him, and though they talked for a good hour afterward meandering through the grounds, she couldn’t get her heart to calm.

From "Throne of Glass" by Sarah J. Maas