MEANDER

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does meander mean? 

• MEANDER (noun)
  The noun MEANDER has 2 senses:

1. a bend or curve, as in a stream or river

2. an aimless amble on a winding course

  Familiarity information: MEANDER used as a noun is rare.

• MEANDER (verb)
  The verb MEANDER has 1 sense:

1. to move or cause to move in a sinuous, spiral, or circular course

  Familiarity information: MEANDER used as a verb is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• MEANDER (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A bend or curve, as in a stream or river

Classified under:

Nouns denoting natural objects (not man-made)

Hypernyms ("meander" is a kind of...):

curve; curved shape (the trace of a point whose direction of motion changes)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "meander"):

oxbow (a U-shaped curve in a stream)

Holonyms ("meander" is a part of...):

stream; watercourse (a natural body of running water flowing on or under the earth)

Derivation:

meander (to move or cause to move in a sinuous, spiral, or circular course)

Sense 2

Meaning:

An aimless amble on a winding course

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Synonyms:

meander; ramble

Hypernyms ("meander" is a kind of...):

amble; perambulation; promenade; saunter; stroll (a leisurely walk (usually in some public place))

Derivation:

meander (to move or cause to move in a sinuous, spiral, or circular course)

• MEANDER (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they meander    ... he / she / it meanders   
Past simple: meandered   
Past participle: meandered   
-ing form: meandering   

Sense 1

Meaning:

To move or cause to move in a sinuous, spiral, or circular course

Classified under:

Verbs of walking, flying, swimming

Synonyms:

meander; thread; wander; weave; wind

Context example:

sometimes, the gout wanders through the entire body

Hypernyms (to "meander" is one way to...):

go; locomote; move; travel (change location; move, travel, or proceed, also metaphorically)

Verb group:

wander (go via an indirect route or at no set pace)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "meander"):

snake (move along a winding path)

Sentence frames:

Something is ----ing PP
Somebody ----s PP

Derivation:

meander (an aimless amble on a winding course)

meander (a bend or curve, as in a stream or river)

 Context examples 

Not to meander myself, at present, I will go back to my birth.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

Other fronts in similar wave trains tilt significantly with respect to the orientation of the wave train, and still other wave trains follow slanted or meandering paths.

(NASA's Juno Mission Detects Jupiter Wave Trains, NASA)

Neptune's dark vortices have exhibited surprising diversity over the years, in terms of size, shape, and stability (they meander in latitude, and sometimes speed up or slow down).

(Hubble Imagery Confirms New Dark Spot on Neptune, NASA)

She did not mention this meeting at home (though she discovered that, thanks to the upset, her new dress was much damaged by the rivulets of dressing that meandered down the skirt), but went through with the preparations which now seemed more irksome than before, and at twelve o'clock all was ready again.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

In one spot you view rugged hills, ruined castles overlooking tremendous precipices, with the dark Rhine rushing beneath; and on the sudden turn of a promontory, flourishing vineyards with green sloping banks and a meandering river and populous towns occupy the scene.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

She always returned, with greater emphasis and with an instinctive knowledge of the strength of her objection, “Let us have no meandering.”

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

I might have a misgiving that I am meandering in stopping to say this, but that it brings me to remark that I build these conclusions, in part upon my own experience of myself; and if it should appear from anything I may set down in this narrative that I was a child of close observation, or that as a man I have a strong memory of my childhood, I undoubtedly lay claim to both of these characteristics.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

I have understood that it was, to the last, her proudest boast, that she never had been on the water in her life, except upon a bridge; and that over her tea (to which she was extremely partial) she, to the last, expressed her indignation at the impiety of mariners and others, who had the presumption to go meandering about the world.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)