perambulate
English
Etymology
Borrowed from Latin perambulō, perambulātus.
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /pəɹˈæmbjəˌleɪt/
Audio (UK) (file)
Verb
perambulate (third-person singular simple present perambulates, present participle perambulating, simple past and past participle perambulated)
- (intransitive) To walk about, roam or stroll.
- 1890, William Booth, “The regimentation of the unemployed”, in In Darkest England and the Way Out:
- Take, for instance, one of the most wretched classes of the community, the poor fellows who perambulate the streets as Sandwich Men. These are farmed out by certain firms.
- 1906, Jack London, chapter XVIII, in Before Adam:
- They dragged themselves from the swamp singly, and in twos and threes, more dead than alive, mere perambulating skeletons, until at last there were thirty of us.
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- (transitive) To inspect (an area) on foot.
- 1903, Robert Louis Stevenson, chapter IV, in Edinburgh:
- The officials, in their gowns of grey, with a white St. Andrew’s cross on back and breast, and a white cloth carried before them on a staff, perambulated the city, adding the terror of man’s justice to the fear of God’s visitation.
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Derived terms
- perambulator
- perambulation
Related terms
- amble
Translations
roam, stroll
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Anagrams
- preambulate
Latin
Verb
perambulāte
- second-person plural present active imperative of perambulō