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perambulator

[per-am-byuh-ley-ter]
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noun
  1. baby carriage.
  2. an odometer pushed by a person walking.
  3. a person who makes a tour of inspection on foot.
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Origin of perambulator

1605–15; < Medieval Latin: inspector, surveyor; see perambulate, -tor
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Examples from the Web for perambulator

Historical Examples

  • I ain't a baby, nor a perambulator neither, to be pushed about by you.

    Archie's Mistake

    G. E. Wyatt

  • Poor Dahlia, she'll be frightened when she sees the perambulator gone.

    Once a Week

    Alan Alexander Milne

  • Mr. Trew gazed for a few moments at a baby in a perambulator.

    Love at Paddington

    W. Pett Ridge

  • Fort stood at the end of the perambulator, and looked at that other fellow's baby.

    Saint's Progress

    John Galsworthy

  • With his foot he drew the perambulator a little nearer to him.

    Old Valentines

    Munson Aldrich Havens

British Dictionary definitions for perambulator

perambulator

noun
  1. a formal word for pram 1
  2. a wheel-like instrument used by surveyors to measure distances
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Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for perambulator

n.

1610s, "one who perambulates," agent noun in Latin form from perambulate. Sense of "baby carriage" is first recorded 1856; often colloquially shortened to pram.

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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper