Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
- intransitive v. To walk at a leisurely pace; stroll.
- n. A leisurely pace.
- n. A leisurely walk or stroll.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
- v. To stroll, or walk at a leisurely pace
- n. A leisurely walk or stroll.
- n. A leisurely pace.
- n. A place for sauntering or strolling.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English
- n. A sauntering, or a sauntering place.
- intransitive v. To wander or walk about idly and in a leisurely or lazy manner; to lounge; to stroll; to loiter.
from The 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.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- v. walk leisurely and with no apparent aim
- n. a leisurely walk (usually in some public place)
- n. a careless leisurely gait
Etymologies
Examples
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"Jason Dufner's walk defines the word 'saunter,'" Graeme McDowell tweeted.
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Sax liked Thoreau's explanation for the word saunter: from à la Sainte Terre, describing pilgrims on their way to the Holy Land.
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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.
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To take a walk is to vegetate; to saunter is to live.
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(He had gotten 'saunter' from listening to Daddy's character, the "cool guy," No Way Jose.) 1 comment | Leave a comment
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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So the word 'saunter' with its modern significance comes from the old days of the Crusades.
rolig commented on the word saunter
Interesting citation at saunterer.
October 6, 2009
jameslappin commented on the word saunter
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.
December 14, 2006