Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • intransitive verb To walk slowly or leisurely; stroll.
  • intransitive verb To move along at an easy gait by using both legs on one side alternately with both on the other. Used of a horse.
  • noun An unhurried or leisurely walk.
  • noun An easy gait, especially that of a horse.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To move with the peculiar pace of a horse when it first lifts the two legs on one side, and then the two on the other; hence, to move easily and gently, without hard shocks.
  • To ride an ambling horse; ride at an easy pace.
  • Figuratively, to move affectedly.
  • noun A peculiar gait of a horse or like animal, in which both legs on one side are moved at the same time; hence, easy motion; gentle pace. Also called pace (which see).

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun A peculiar gait of a horse, in which both legs on the same side are moved at the same time, alternating with the legs on the other side.
  • noun A movement like the amble of a horse.
  • intransitive verb To go at the easy gait called an amble; -- applied to the horse or to its rider.
  • intransitive verb To move somewhat like an ambling horse; to go easily or without hard shocks.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun An unhurried leisurely walk or stroll.
  • noun An easy gait, especially that of a horse (as above).
  • verb intransitive To stroll or walk slowly and leisurely.
  • verb intransitive Of a horse: to move along by using both legs on one side, and then the other.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a leisurely walk (usually in some public place)
  • verb walk leisurely

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English amblen, from Old French ambler, from Latin ambulāre, to walk.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Old French ambler ("walk as a horse does"), from Latin ambulo ("walk").

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Examples

  • So he and his wife mounted their beasts and Abd al-Kaddus whistled, when, behold, a mighty big elephant trotted up with fore hand and feet on amble from the heart of the desert and he took it and mounted it.

    The Book of The Thousand Nights And A Night 2006

  • In our flight over the de - fert I laboured under one great and pecu - liar difadvantage, I mean my inability to keep the camel to his proper pace; for thofe who are ufed to travel on this ani - mal feldom go at a trot, but almoft always at a kind of amble, which is equally expe - ditious, and much lefs fevere to the rider.

    Travels round the world, in the years 1767, 1768, 1769, 1770, 1771 1791

  • The "amble" to Country Kitchen after Formal was cold, but fun.

    ana-ng Diary Entry ana-ng 2009

  • Countess Bonina, with whom he had danced the first half of the waltz, and, scanning his kingdom — that is to say, a few couples who had started dancing — he caught sight of Kitty, entering, and flew up to her with that peculiar, easy amble which is confined to directors of balls.

    Anna Karenina 2003

  • He had only just left the Countess Banin, with whom he had danced the first half of the waltz, and scanning his kingdom—that is to say, a few couples who had started dancing—he caught sight of Kitty, entering, and flew up to her with that peculiar, easy amble which is confined to directors of balls.

    Chapter XXII. Part I 1917

  • In the hands, moreover, of the poets of this particular time, whether they were printed at length or cut up into eights and sixes, they had an almost irresistible tendency to degenerate into a kind of lolloping amble which is inexpressibly monotonous.

    A History of Elizabethan Literature George Saintsbury 1889

  • But this quiet pace did not last, for, the road becoming level, the pony took to a kind of amble which seemed its natural pace, and was soon urged from that into a gallop by its driver.

    A Pair of Clogs Amy Walton 1873

  • Countess Bonina, with whom he had danced the first half of the waltz, and, scanning his kingdom -- that is to say, a few couples who had started dancing -- he caught sight of Kitty, entering, and flew up to her with that peculiar, easy amble which is confined to directors of balls.

    Anna Karenina Leo Tolstoy 1869

  • Their pace is a kind of amble, and they are able to sustain a journey of about twenty leagues a day.

    Delineations of the Ox Tribe The Natural History of Bulls, Bisons, and Buffaloes. Exhibiting all the Known Species and the More Remarkable Varieties of the Genus Bos. George Vasey 1857

  • "They have to wait for me to kind of amble over there."

    Homepage | INFORUM | Fargo, ND 2010

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  • "ambled downstairs toward the press room." The Case for Christ by Lee Strobel pg 10

    October 3, 2010