perambulate

English

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin perambulō, perambulātus.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /pəɹˈæmbjʊˌleɪt/, /pəɹˈæmbjəˌleɪt/

• Audio (UK)

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Verb

perambulate (third-person singular simple present perambulates, present participle perambulating, simple past and past participle perambulated)

1. (intransitive) To walk about, roam or stroll.
   • 1890, William Booth, “The regimentation of the unemployed”, in In Darkest England and the Way Out‎^[1]:

     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^[2]:

     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.

2. (transitive) To inspect (an area) on foot.
   • 1903, Robert Louis Stevenson, chapter IV, in Edinburgh‎^[3]:

     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.

Derived terms

• perambulator
• perambulation

Related terms

• amble

Translations

roam, stroll

• Bulgarian: обхождам (bg) (obhoždam), обикалям (bg) (obikaljam)
• German: durchreisen (de)
• Irish: máirseáil
• Polish: przechadzać się (pl) impf
• Portuguese: perambular (pt), vaguear (pt), passear (pt)
• Russian: бродить (ru) impf (broditʹ)

Anagrams

• preambulate

Latin

Verb

perambulāte

1. second-person plural present active imperative of perambulō