ramble
Americanverb (used without object)
-
rambles,
present (3rd person singular)
-
rambled,
past participle, past
-
rambling
present participle
-
to wander around in a leisurely, aimless manner.
They rambled through the shops until closing time.
-
to take a course with many turns or windings, as a stream or path.
-
to grow in a random, unsystematic fashion.
The vine rambled over the walls and tree trunks.
-
to talk or write in a discursive, aimless way (usually followed byon ).
The speaker rambled on with anecdote after anecdote.
verb (used with object)
-
rambles,
present (3rd person singular)
-
rambled,
past participle, past
-
rambling
present participle
noun
-
rambles
plural
verb
-
to stroll about freely, as for relaxation, with no particular direction
-
(of paths, streams, etc) to follow a winding course; meander
-
(of plants) to grow in a random fashion
-
(of speech, writing, etc) to lack organization
noun
Synonym Usage
See roam.
Other Word Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
ramblesimple
-
ramblessimple
-
have rambledperfect
-
has rambledperfect
-
am ramblingprogressive
-
are ramblingprogressive
-
is ramblingprogressive
-
have been ramblingperfect progressive
-
has been ramblingperfect progressive
Past
-
rambledsimple
-
had rambledperfect
-
was ramblingprogressive
-
were ramblingprogressive
-
had been ramblingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of ramble
First recorded in 1610–20; origin uncertain
Explanation
You ramble when your talking or your walking goes on and on and on. And on. You’re in no hurry to make a point or get to your destination — if there is one at all. The word ramble comes from similar roots as roam. They both mean wander, but they’re often used a little differently. You might roam around on vacation to relax or find adventure. If you’re a shark, you roam the deep sea for food. On the other hand, if the person on the plane next to you chatters nervously and can’t stop, you wish they wouldn’t ramble on like that.
Vocabulary lists containing ramble
25 Ways of Walking
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Wish
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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:
In plain language, that means he’s probably going to ramble late into the night about a bunch of baseless conspiracy theories.
From Slate ● Jul. 16, 2026
His fusion of speaking and singing allows him to ramble as he embraces absurdity, non sequiturs and free association with a stand-up comic’s sense of timing.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 2, 2026
Joe and Kimberly let him ramble, politely try to make sense of what he’s saying.
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 7, 2024
But, no objective observer could describe such a life as a "ramble".
From BBC ● Sep. 22, 2024
I watch them ramble against a huge rock a few hundred yards out.
From "Marcus Vega Doesn't Speak Spanish" by Pablo Cartaya
Usually when a person rambles, myself included, it’s because they don’t feel comfortable with the person to whom they are talking.
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 17, 2026
Among their findings: Weekend automobile rambles were replacing church attendance.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 2, 2026
He then played a clip in which Trump rambles about his White House ballroom in response to a reporter’s question about how he was handling Kirk’s death.
From Slate ● Sep. 18, 2025
The sure-why-not plot, modeled on the California water grab in “Chinatown,” is less interesting than the charismatic cast that rambles along with Pine on his excellent adventure.
From New York Times ● May 10, 2024
“El viejo loco rambles on. I am tired, Esperanza. You are right. But I’ll rest soon. It’s been a good life. Raise him well, nieta.”
From "The Mark of Athena" by Rick Riordan
Asked about defending Taiwan, she rambled about making sure “we are moving in all of our economic research and our global positions to avoid any such confrontation.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 20, 2026
As usual, Harbaugh rambled on and on about his on-field leader but failed to explain how Herbert made the plays he made on the final drive.
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 18, 2024
The rest of the week went no better for Trump, who rambled and drifted during an event at the Economic Club of Chicago on Tuesday.
From Salon ● Oct. 16, 2024
During the 10-minute phone interview, he ranted and rambled and seemed to be accidentally pressing various buttons on his phone, punctuating the broadcast with random beeping—that is, until he was ultimately cut off.
From Slate ● Aug. 27, 2024
She rambled on about how a planet’s distance from the sun was directly related to the speed at which it traveled.
From "Sir Fig Newton and the Science of Persistence" by Sonja Thomas
“The knock in the night has always been my calling,” this kind listener explains as she admits the exhausted woman with the rambling story to tell.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 30, 2026
Saramago captures the rambling reversals of Senhor José’s thoughts with an unconventional prose style.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 11, 2026
“It was not possible for me to imagine a solution to the level of fragmentation, pain, and dysfunction I saw,” she writes, leaving readers without much justification for having followed her rambling, idiosyncratic quest.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 20, 2026
The book also compared the UK to a "rambling stately home" in which the power was only on in some rooms.
From BBC ● Jun. 25, 2026
He was about to go on a rambling and error-filled escape journey.
From "Chasing Lincoln's Killer" by James L. Swanson
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Get a wordDefinitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
