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meandering

meandering

5 6.1
A slow walk or a time of thinking without a clear plan
  • noun
  • /miˈændərɪŋ/
translation icon : divagación
  • No social pleasantries, no meandering around to get to the point.
  • meandering rivers
  • meandering course
  • meandering around

And then George goes on to say transcripts of her verbal meanderings cannot convey their eerie strangeness.

Examples

  • Some people thought "Tree of Life" bloviated, but the meandering is what allowed you to relax.

    Blog text (5)
  • Some people thought "Tree of Life" bloviated, but the meandering is what allowed you to relax and get into it.

    Blog text (5)
  • How long it takes probably comes down to how much meandering around you want to do.

    Blog text (11)
  • But instead I gave you a meandering tour and aimlessly talked about my dead dog.

  • You got to go through the slow, plotting, annoying, meandering process called career and life.

  • Tristram Shandy's meandering account of his birth is a case in point.

  • For our meandering drives in the mountains, into Corinth or around Lake Luzerne?

    Fiction book (1997)
  • However, there's still too much meandering and lack of focus to make this a show worth recommending wholeheartedly.

    Blog text (6)
  • Alas, it wasn't to be due to some of life's aimless meandering.

    Blog text (15)
  • The novel's charm lies in its meanderings, as the characters explore various ideas without a fixed agenda.

Synonyms

drifting
vsmeandering
6 5.0

Moving from place to place without a clear purpose

also covers daydreaming and repeated wanderings not only physical motion
revery
vsmeandering
  • US
2 9.9

Being lost in pleasant thoughts and not noticing things around you

includes physical wandering as well as mental drifting rather than only thought
aimlessness
vsmeandering
1 7.0

A lack of clear purpose or direction

refers to repeated aimless movements or thoughts rather than a single general state
meander
vsmeandering
1 5.2

A slow, aimless walk that follows a curving path

describes a sequence of aimless moves or thoughts rather than a single path
woolgathering
vsmeandering
  • Archaic
9.0

Lost in daydreams and not paying attention

refers to repeated aimless movements or thoughts rather than a habitual absent-mindedness

How Aimless

rambling
33 5.5
meandering
5 6.1
wandering
3.7
digression
6 7.0

Surface Forms

meandering singular
meanderings plural

Morphology

meandering = meander (transparent) = meander + ing

Nominalization of the verb 'meander' with '-ing' yields 'meandering' meaning the act or series of wanderings; the derivation is straightforward.

Etymology

The noun meandering comes from the verb meander, which itself comes from the river name Meander and means to move or flow without a straight route. So a meandering is like a 'wandering' walk or a string of thoughts that 'drift' with no clear direction.