Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- v. To walk at a leisurely pace; stroll.
- n. A leisurely pace.
- n. A leisurely walk or stroll.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- To venture (?). See sauntering, 1.
- To hesitate (?).
- To wander idly or loiteringly; move or walk in a leisurely, listless, or undecided way; loiter; lounge; stroll.
- To dawdle; idle; loiter over a thing.
- Synonyms Stroll, Stray, etc. See ramble, v.
- n. A stroll; a leisurely ramble or walk.
- n. A leisurely, careless gait.
- n. A sauntering-place; a loitering- or strolling-place.
Wiktionary
- v. To stroll, or walk at a leisurely pace
- n. A leisurely walk or stroll.
- n. A leisurely pace.
- n. obsolete A place for sauntering or strolling.
GNU Webster's 1913
- v. To wander or walk about idly and in a leisurely or lazy manner; to lounge; to stroll; to loiter.
- n. A sauntering, or a sauntering place.
WordNet 3.0
- v. walk leisurely and with no apparent aim
- n. a leisurely walk (usually in some public place)
- n. a careless leisurely gait
Etymologies
- Probably from Middle English santren, to muse. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“Jason Dufner's walk defines the word 'saunter,'" Graeme McDowell tweeted.”
“Sax liked Thoreau's explanation for the word saunter: from à la Sainte Terre, describing pilgrims on their way to the Holy Land.”
“The word saunter, like many others, can't be traced back very far (AHD: Probably from Middle English santren, to muse), but of course that doesn't stop people from trying, and this word has a particularly enjoyable pseudo-etymology, discussed in the following typically piquant passage from one of the stories in Kim Stanley Robinson's The Martians (a book I recommend to anyone who likes thoughtful, human-oriented science fiction):Long walks around Odessa at the end of the day.”
“To take a walk is to vegetate; to saunter is to live.”
“(He had gotten 'saunter' from listening to Daddy's character, the "cool guy," No Way Jose.) 1 comment | Leave a comment”
“As opposed to the guy who sits in the same spot every day asking for a hand-out, the bum [from the German for "saunter"] roams freely throughout the city, the country, the planet: He is king of the road.”
“She's the poster child for the word "saunter" and her curvy, busty frame totally gives the finger to heroin chic while completely oozing sex appeal.”
“He'd always walk up to his airplane in a kind of saunter, devil may care saunter, flick the cigarette away, grab the girl waiting here, give her a kiss.”
“By the way -- very much by the way -- I don't know whether many of us know that the word 'saunter' that we use comes to us from the Crusades to the Holy Land.”
“So the word 'saunter' with its modern significance comes from the old days of the Crusades.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘saunter’.
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GRE Barrons Wordlist
A complete Barron's Wordlist for GRE preparation. Your online flashcard replacement.
abase, abash, abate, abbreviate, abdicate, aberrant, aberration, abet, abeyance, abhor, abject, abjure and 4087 more...
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LIT - Ulysses - key words and phrases
vanish, number one, archangel, commodious, dominie, rubble, glisten, morose, spindle, ventilation, Blessed, christian and 503 more...
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Interesting words
A list of words that are odd or words that I have looked up.
concupiscence, brize, scree, scoria, forestaff, spanaemia, valetudinarianism, distasture, pyrethrum, laudanum, gentian, bicameral and 11184 more...
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movement (slow)
words describing slow action or movement
( open list, randomness, descriptive )
related:
http://www.wordnik.co...creep, crawl, plod, slouch, idle, lumber, tiptoe, bend, amble, mosey, saunter, loiter and 117 more...
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Words build meanings from origins( et...
These come from gamma meditation ,I think.
discursive, exogenous, machinations, purportedly, sumptuous, congruity, cantankerous, incongruous, festoon, hessian, ratiocinative, stratigraphic and 2046 more...
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January 2012
bloviate, pastiche, apparat, facile, paroxysm, pique, bedfellow, pedigree, tutelage, protege, protégé, retroactive and 196 more...
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Banned verbs for the Christmas shoppi...
In the interests of purposefulness…
wander, stroll, meander, drift, amble, roam, swarm, straggle, mill, ramble, stray, hover and 2 more...
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I am : moving
Words to describe gait and movement.
walk, run, trot, jog, canter, gallop, skip, crawl, slink, slither, amble, trundle and 69 more...
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Do you find it funny?
Strange words I come across every now and then.
neornithe, oriel, vitreous, zenith, saunter, ebb, vacillation, arbitrary, lull, nibble, knead, parched and 5 more...
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MY COLLECTION
COLLECT FROM DIFFERENT PAPERS,WEBSITES,BOOKS AND MOVIES.
VAUDEVILLE, herbivores, BANDWAGON, PREY, squander, squabbling, Concierge, persuade, dethrone, cacophony, maize, ubiquitous and 98 more...
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delightful descriptors
petrichor, omphaloskepsis, ouroboros, oneiric, flaneur, saunter, dishabituation, fractalization, eudemony, phosphorescence, holographic, umwelt and 136 more...
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GRE Words
abjure, unswear, state, rescission, indemnification, ab, reny, abnegate, vitiated, vitiate, adumbrated, abash and 378 more...
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(more or less) Temporary Urth List
Temporary list is temporary.
Collecting a few words here, which are then to be alloted to other lists.vassal, gnaw, putrescence, liege, pederasty, disseminate, loot, waning, fitful, hiatuse, plow, pious and 292 more...
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Words Covered in Faery Dust (S)
words that evoke magic, mystery, mayhem, magnificence or anything else that glimmers in the grass
sabian symbols, saffron, sagacious, sage, salamander, sally lunn, salmon, salsify, salt water taffy, samhain, sand dollar, sandalwood and 270 more...
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Wordplay
reticent, slammerkin, moonstruck, zephyr, gallivant, hullabaloo, pandemonium, equestrian, wallflower, martyr, threadbare, treacherous and 180 more...
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Vocab
Words that I come across, and go blank, or want to clarify.
nefarious, edifice, malevolent, ostensible, folderol, bauble, livid, amnesty, calculus, saddlery, maisonette, cuisse and 423 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for saunter.

rolig Interesting citation at saunterer. Oct 6, 2009
jameslappin This word takes me back to summers in the 1980s, watching Test match special. Jim Laker intones: 'Here comes Viv Richards, sauntering to the wicket'. The word captures Viv's relaxed disdain for the people who would bowl at him.
Dec 14, 2006