| 释义 |
▪ I. wandering, vbl. n.|ˈwɒndərɪŋ|
Also wandring, wandrynge, etc.
[f. wander v. + -ing1.]
The action of the verb in various senses.
1. Travelling from place to place or from country to country without settled route or destination; roaming. Often in plural, sometimes denoting a protracted period of devious journeying.
1362Langl. P. Pl. A. Prol. 7, I was weori of wandringe and wente me to reste Vndur a brod banke bi a Bourne syde. c1440Promp. Parv. 515/1 Wanderynge, vagacio. 1552Huloet, Wandrynge, discursus. 1664Jer. Taylor Dissuas. Popery i. §3. 21 The labors of pilgrimages, superstitious and useless wandrings from place to place. 1697Dryden æneis i. 1061 The fatal Issue of so long a War, Your Flight, your Wand'rings, and your Woes declare. 1705Stanhope Paraphr. I. 24 The Night here will answer to the present Life, a state of Wandring and Weakness. 1797Ht. Lee Canterb. T., Poet's T. I. 119 [The letter] had followed him in his wanderings, and reached him at last by mere accident. 1876M. E. Braddon J. Haggard's Dau. I. i. 8 Joshua..settled down after his wanderings in his native town.
b. Of inanimate things: Devious movement from place to place.
1827Lytton Falkland i. 61 The air of heaven [is] not purer in its wanderings. 1867Tennyson Holy Grail 664 Their wise men Were strong in that old magic which can trace The wandering of the stars. 1913J. W. Jenkinson Vertebrate Embryol. i. 11 Amongst movements of single cells are comprised:..the wanderings of the germ-cells in early stages.
c. Of the eyes: Irregular turning this way and that.
1818Scott Rob Roy xx, The idle indicated their inattention by the wandering of their eyes. 1859Habits of Gd. Society vii. 251 You should not show that you think so..by the toss of your head or the wandering of your eyes. 1869Tanner Clin. Med. (ed. 2) 12 Condition of Nervous System... Wandering of eyes, state of pupils, squinting.
d. Of the mind, thoughts, desires, etc.: Aimless passing from object to object.
a1300Cursor M. 27793 Vnnait talckhing, vnstedfastnes, o will wandring. 1450–1530Myrr. our Ladye i. xvi. 43 Beholdynge therwyth what pareyl he stondeth in yf he contynew rechelessly in suche wandryng of mynde vnto his deth. 1526Pilgr. Perf. (W. de W. 1531) 161 To call in our mynde from vagacyon or wandryng & to apply vs to our duty reuerently. 1611Bible Eccl. vi. 9 Better is the sight of the eyes, then the wandering of the desire. 1712Budgell Spect. No. 425 ⁋1 A Poem of Milton's, which he entitles Il Penseroso, the Ideas of which were exquisitely suited to my present Wanderings of Thought. 1746Francis tr. Horace, Epist. i. i. 90 note, It might well seem, that this Inconsistency, this wandering of Spirit, might be the peculiar Folly of the Rich.
2. Deviation from the right or intended path or direction, straying, aberration.
1711J. Greenwood Eng. Gram. 80 Beside denotes erring, or Wandring (‘as he shoots beside the mark’). 1818Byron Juan i. 7 The regularity of my design Forbids all wandering as the worst of sinning. 1844Mrs. Browning Lost Bower l, The next morning, all had vanished, or my wandering missed the place.
3. Disordered action of the mind due to illness or nervous exhaustion; rambling, delirium; in plural, delirious fancies, esp. as expressed in speech; incoherent ramblings.
1837Dickens Pickw. iii, The theatre and the public-house were the chief themes of the wretched man's wanderings. 1843R. J. Graves Syst. Clin. Med. xii. 130 Here there was a very threatening array of symptoms..illusions of the sense of hearing, a fiery eye, and incessant mental wandering. a1859Macaulay Hist. Eng. xxiii. V. 104 Every third day..his dejection, his fits of wandering seemed to indicate the approach of dissolution. 1897Allbutt's Syst. Med. IV. 398 Such are many degrees of transient mental failure, to which such terms as ‘wandering’ and ‘rambling’ are applied.
4. Gerundially in to go, or to be, a-wandering. Now rare or arch.
1700Locke Hum. Und. ii. xxxiii. §6 (ed. 4) 222 Though his unattentive Thoughts be elsewhere a wandering. 1898Besant Orange Girl ii. xxiii, His wits gone a-wandering!
▪ II. wandering, ppl. a.|ˈwɒndərɪŋ|
[-ing2.]
1. Of persons or animals: That moves from place to place or from country to country without readily apparent purpose; travelling to a vague (or distant) destination, or by uncertain and devious routes; roving; vagrant; having no fixed abode or station.
c1000Prudentius Glosses in Germania N.S. XI. 388/37 Uagantes demonas wandriᵹende pucan. 1450–1530Myrr. our Ladye ii. 157 The darkenesses of dethe whiche the envyous ennemye is wonte to brynge in to wandrynge sowlles. 1538Elyot Dict., Fluctivagus, wandring in rivers or waters. Ibid., Vagus, wandrynge and abydynge in noo place. 1589Nashe Anat. Absurd. B 4, The sillie Sheephearde committing his wandering sheepe to the custodie of his wappe. 1607Extracts Aberd. Reg. (1848) II. 293 To sie that thair be no wandering persones efter the hour of ten. 1642J. Taylor (Water P.) Henry Walker A 2, At least 500. Vagrants..were all suddainely Metamorphis'd and Transform'd into wandring Booke sellers. 1715Pope Iliad ii. 553 Thick as Insects play, The wandring Nation of a Summer's Day. 1845A. Polson Law Nations in Encycl. Metrop. II. 802/1 In an age of defective police, wandering labourers and ‘valiant beggars’ were objects of terror. 1855Macaulay Hist. Eng. xvii. IV. 95 The wandering adventurer [Baldearg O'Donnel] at first demanded nothing less than an earldom. 1878J. Davidson Inverurie vii. 244 It is of the kind made at that period for the use of wandering priests.
b. Of primitive peoples, or animals: Nomadic, roving, migratory. Frequently tr. scientific L. errans, vagus, etc.
c1400Prymer (1895) 10 Alle kynde of bestis & wandrynge [L. omnes bestiae et pecora], blesse ȝe to þe lord! 1544in Hakluyt Voy. (1599) II. ii. 19 From Mauritania or Barbary toward the South is Getulia, a rough and sauage region, whose inhabitants are wilde and wandering people. 1785Pennant Arctic Zool. II. 506 Albatross. Wandering. Diomedea Exulans. 1801Shaw Gen. Zool. II. 66 Wandering Mouse. Mus Vagus... This..is frequent throughout the whole Tartarian desert, and is of a migrating nature. 1802Bingley Anim. Biog. (1813) III. 362 The Wandering Spider. This Spider..does not lie in wait for its prey, like several others; it is a lively and active hunter. 1836[P. B. Duncan] Cat. Ashm. Mus. 75 Head of the..Wandering Albatross.—Diomedea exulans. Linn. 1844Kinglake Eothen xii, I was but too glad to set my horse's hoofs upon the land of the wandering tribes. 1854A. Adams etc. Man. Nat. Hist. 275 Wandering-Spiders (Errantia). 1863W. C. Baldwin Afr. Hunting viii. 338 The Masaras, or wandering Bushmen.
c. the Wandering Jew. A legendary personage who (according to a popular belief first mentioned in the 13th c., and widely current at least until the 16th century), for having insulted Our Lord on his way to the Cross, was condemned to wander over the earth without rest until the Day of Judgement. Often referred to as the proverbial type of restless and profitless travelling from place to place. Cf. Fr. le juif errant, G. der ewige Jude. For the application to trailing plants see sense 2 e.
In the earliest form of the legend the Wandering Jew is called Cartaphilus; in the best-known modern version his name appears as Ahasuerus, but other names also occur.
1632Lithgow Trav. viii. 345 Tradition, as their wandring Jew, the Shoomaker of Jerusalem is, of whom in Rome, they have wrot ten thousand fables. 1646J. Hall Satyre 202 Poems i. 10 Which [might] if..stitch't into a web, supply anew With annuary cloakes the wandring Jew. 1680V. Alsop Mischief Imposit. viii. 83 Would he have us, like the wandering Jew, ramble up and down for satisfaction, and never accept it? 1837Dickens Pickw. xxxix, And here am I a-walkin' about like the wanderin' Jew—a sporting character you have perhaps heerd on, Mary, my dear, as wos alvays doin' a match agin time, and never vent to sleep.
2. Of things: Travelling (or carried) along in an uncertain, or frequently changing direction; moved, or moving, (idly) to and fro.
1590Spenser F.Q. iii. ix. 7 It is not yron bandes, nor hundred eyes, Nor brasen walls, nor many wakefull spyes. That can withhold her wilfull wandring feet. a1600Hist. Tom Thumb in Hazl. E.P.P. II. 195 His shape it being such, That men should hear him speak, but not His wandering shadow touch. 1667Milton P.L. xii. 648 They hand in hand with wandring steps and slow, Through Eden took thir solitarie way. a1668Davenant Love & Hon. ii. i. Wks. (1673) II. 234 Lost like A blossom which the wandring wind Blows from the bosom of the Spring, to mix With Summer's dust. 1802Wordsw. To the Cuckoo 4 Shall I call thee Bird, Or but a wandering Voice? 1814Scott Ld. of Isles iii. xiii, A scene so rude, so wild as this,..Ne'er did my wandering footsteps press, Where'er I happ'd to roam. 1850Tennyson In Mem. xxiv, The very source and fount of Day Is dash'd with wandering isles of night. 1853Dickens Bleak Ho. lv, The old housekeeper looks at him, and those wandering hands of hers are quite enough for Mrs. Bagnet's confirmation. [Cf. below: Only her fluttering hands give utterance to her emotions.] 1855Macaulay Hist. Eng. xxii. IV. 719 He had..had in his hands proofs of much that Fenwick had only gathered from wandering reports.
b. Of the mind, thoughts, affections, etc.: Moving vaguely (towards, or about, their object); not directed by reason or fixed purpose; random; restless; wanton.
1450–1530Myrr. our Ladye i. xvi. 42 So the frayle & wretched soulle..can not sturre vp yt selfe from wandryng and vagant thoughtes. 1530Palsgr. 698/1 The mans mind is so wandringe that he can sattell hym upon nothynge. 1581G. Pettie Guazzo's Civ. Conv. i. (1586) 17 b, You, cleering altogether my minde, haue now driuen awaie the mistes which dimmed it & made it so wandering & running. 1648Milton Ps. lxxxi. 50 Then did I leave them to their will And to their wandring mind. 1688Prior On Exod. iii. 14 vii, Levelling at God his wand'ring Guess,..Laws to his Maker the learn'd Wretch can give. 1705tr. Bosman's Guinea Pref., I had some wandring Reflections upon the Reasons alledged in my first Letter. 1746Francis tr. Horace, Art of Poetry 33 Then learn this wandering Humour to controul. 1797Mrs. Radcliffe Italian xvii, A deep sigh from Vivaldi recalled his wandering imagination. 1818Scott Rob Roy xx, My father had often checked me for this wandering mood of mind.
Comb.1552Huloet, Wandrynge-wytted, vacillans.
c. Of the eyes: Roving, restless, turning this way and that.
1578H. Wotton Courtlie Controv. 278 Wherevnto he answered with a wandering eye [Fr. d'vn œil inconstant], Ha Mistresse, if I [etc.]. 1746Francis tr. Horace, Epist. ii. i. 256 Pageant Shows, that charm the wandering Eye. 1899Allbutt's Syst. Med. VIII. 217 The teacher may observe slow action, wandering eyes, twitchings.
d. Of the moon or stars (esp. tr. L. planēta, or Gr. πλανήτης): Not fixed, having a separate individual motion.
1526Tindale Jude 13 They are wandrynge starres to whom is reserved the myst of darcknes for ever. 1585Higins Junius' Nomencl. 361/1 Sidera errantia,..the planets: the wandering starres. 1590Shakes. Mids. N. iv. i. 103 We the Globe can compasse soone, Swifter then the wandring Moone. 1632Milton Penseroso 67 To behold the wandring Moon, Riding neer her highest noon. 1667― P.L. v. 177 And yee five other wandring Fires that move In mystic Dance. 1697Dryden Virg. Georg. i. 209 Then Sailers quarter'd Heav'n, and found a Name For ev'ry fix'd and ev'ry wandring Star. 1829Chapters Phys. Sci. 365 Pythagoras..contended that..the comets were a kind of wandering stars.
e. Of plants: Trailing; sending out long tendrils, runners, or adventitious roots. Also in Wandering Jew (after 1 c), wandering Sailor(s, wandering Jenny, wandering Willie, popular names of certain plants: see quots.
1590Spenser F.Q. ii. ix. 24 Of hewen stone the porch was fairely wrought..; Ouer the which was cast a wandring vine. 1878Cumbld. Gloss. Introd. 20 Lysimachia nummularia. Wandering Jenny. 1881Rep. & Trans. Devonsh. Assoc. XIII. 96 Wandering Sailors..Linaria Cymbalaria. 1882Friend Dev. Plant-n., Wandering Sailor... (2) Lysimachia Nummularia. 1882Garden 28 Jan. 53/1 The creeping Saxifrage, or our old friend the ‘Wandering Jew’. 1886Britten & Holland Plant-n., Wandering Jew, Linaria Cymbalaria, Mill. Suss. 1889Hardwicke's Science-Gossip XXV. 47 The creeping plant known locally as ‘Wandering Jew’..is found in the North-West Provinces, particularly, I believe, in Manitoba. 1913C. Pettman Africanderisms 544 Wandering Jew, or Wandering Willie.—The Eastern Province name of a creeping plant—a sort of periwinkle.
f. wandering fire or wandering light: Will-o'-the-wisp. (Now often fig. after Tennyson's use.)
1667Milton P.L. ix. 634 A wandring Fire Compact of unctuous vapor, which the Night Condenses, [etc.]. 1789–94Blake Songs Innoc., Little Boy Found i, The little boy lost in the lonely fen, Led by the wand'ring light. 1869Tennyson Holy Grail 319 How often, O my knights,..This chance of noble deeds will come and go Unchallenged, while ye follow wandering fires Lost in the quagmire!
g. Phys. and Path. Of diseases, pains, etc.: Moving from one part of the body to another (without clearly ascertained cause). Also (in recent use), wandering cells: amœboid cells.
1585Higins Junius' Nomencl. 422/1 Morbus palabundus,..a wandering disease, or a sickenesse spread here and there. 1693tr. Blancard's Phys. Dict. (ed. 2), Arthritis vaga, or Planetica, a Wandring Gout, is a Disease in the Joynts that creates pain, sometimes in one Limb, sometimes in another. 1706E. Baynard Cold Baths ii. 320 Aches and wandering Pains. 1725N. Robinson Th. Physick 149 As the Scene of all acute continual Fevers is acted in the Blood, so those erratic, wandering Fevers..are deriv'd from the same Original. 1896Allbutt's Syst. Med. I. 92 Here in the immediate neighbourhood of the wandering cells, the short, curved bacillary forms could be seen to have undergone the transformation. 1897Ibid. IV. 442 Uric acid in excess and oxalic acid in the urine are often attended by..wandering..pains in the back, thigh, calf of leg, and sole of foot. 1899Ibid. VII. 81 Fürster also held that wandering leucocytes might become transformed into glia cells. 1899Syd. Soc. Lex., Wandering abscess, an abscess that tracks along so as to point at a distance from its original seat. Wandering cells, a synonym for Amœboid cells.
h. Of roads, rivers, etc.: Lying in an irregularly bending line, winding, meandering; also fig. Also transf. (Phys.) as the distinctive epithet of a particular pair of nerves (after mod.L. par vagum, nervi vagi).
1667Milton P.L. ii. 561 Others apart sat on a Hill retir'd, In thoughts more elevate,..And found no end, in wandring mazes lost. 1718J. Chamberlayne Relig. Philos. (1730) I. ix. §8 The Parvagum, or Wandering-Nerve. 1764Goldsm. Trav. 2 Or by the lazy Scheld or wandering Po. 1872Howells Wedd. Journ. (1892) 257 The wandering corridors. 1886Stevenson Kidnapped xv, A wandering, country by⁓track. 1899Allbutt's Syst. Med. VI. 812 The term ‘accessory’ was applied by this anatomist [Willis] to the special nerve which is accessory to the vagi or ‘wandering pair’.
†i. wandering name: a term that may be applied indifferently to various objects. Obs.
a1555Ridley Treat. agst. Transubst. (1556) 52 If in the wordes This is my bodye, the woorde (this) be as Dunse calleth it a wanderynge name, to appointe and shewe furthe anye one thinge whereof the name or nature it doeth not tell: so muste it bee lykewyse [etc.]. 1659Somner Dict., Wudumerce, Ambrosia, Nectar, a wandring name given unto many severall herbes.
j. Having no fixed arrangement, scattered irregularly.
1785Martyn Lett. Bot. xiii. (1794) 132 The flowers are irregularly disposed, or wandering, as Linnæus calls them.
3.
†a. Of persons, etc.: Deviating from the proper or determined course; fig. erring, disloyal. Obs.
1606Bp. W. Barlow Serm. 21 Sept. B ij, To heale the infected, to splint the spreined, to reduce the wandering. 1628Feltham Resolves ii. xxix. 90 Wee dare not doe those things that are lawfull, lest the wandring World mis-construe them. 1634Milton Comus 39 The nodding horror of whose shady brows Threats the forlorn and wandring Passinger. 1667― P.L. ii. 404 Who shall tempt with wandring feet The dark unbottom'd infinite Abyss. 1697Dryden æneis xii. 219 Long hast thou known, nor need I to record The wanton sallies of my wand'ring Lord.
b. Of inanimate things: Straying from the right path.
1600Shakes. Sonn. cxvi, O no, it is an euer fixed marke That lookes on tempests and is neuer shaken; It is the star to euery wandring barke. 1697Dryden æneis ix. 1008 Imperial Juno turn'd the Course before; And fix'd the wand'ring Weapon in the door. 1812J. Wilson Isle of Palms iii. 8 Some wandering Ship who hath lost her way. 1899J. Milne Rom. Pro-Consul x. (1911) 150 A wandering bullet plunged through the roof of the wooden cottage.
†c. Of places: Out-of-the-way, inaccessible, remote. Obs. rare.
1600Surflet Countrie Farme i. xvii. 110 Swans haunt and loue to resort to some particular places onely, as in watrie, wandring and solitarie places [orig. lieux aquatiques, esgarez & solitaires].
d. Path. wandering spleen, wandering kidney, wandering liver: see quots.
1897Allbutt's Syst. Med. III. 584 The so-called ‘wandering spleen’ in which the viscus is found in the lower abdomen. Ibid. IV. 518 A case of wandering spleen. 1899Syd. Soc. Lex., Wandering, moving from place to place. Wandering kidney, a synonym for floating kidney. Wandering liver.
e. Mining. (See quot.) Cf. stray a.
1886J. Barrowman Sc. Mining Terms 70 Wandering coal, a coal seam that exists only over a small area; an irregular seam of coal.
4. Characterized by wandering.
1582Stanyhurst æneis iii. (Arb.) 88 To soyl of Cyclops with wandring iournye we roamed. 1603Daniel Def. Ryme H 6 b, There is no right in these things that are continually in a wandring motion, carried with the violence of our vncertaine likings. 1697Dryden æneis iii. 943 Thus to the listning Queen, the Royal Guest His wand'ring Course, and all his Toils express'd. 1719De Foe Crusoe i. (Globe) 112 This little wandering Journey, without settled Place of Abode, had been so unpleasant to me, that my own House..was a perfect Settlement to me. 1781Gibbon Decl. & F. xxxi. (1787) III. 227 He experienced the adventures of an obscure and wandering life. 1814Scott Ld. of Isles iii. xxxi, A landless prince, whose wandering life Is but one scene of blood and strife. 1872Howells Wedd. Journ. (1892) 315 The river..whose wandering loveliness the road follows. 1885‘Mrs. Alexander’ At Bay iii, Paris is not a bad place to anchor in after a wandering life.
Hence ˈwanderingly adv.; ˈwanderingness.
1552Huloet, Wandrynglye, palatim, passim. 1565Golding Ovid's Met. To Rdr. A j b, And Pilgrims such as wandringly theyr tyme in trauell waste. 1608Shakes. Per. iii. iii. 7 Your shakes of fortune, though they hant [1609 haunt] you mortally Yet glaunce full wondringly on vs. 1653Jer. Taylor Serm. for Year i. iii. 32 Were thy prayers made in feare and holinesse, with passion and desire? Were they not made unwillingly, weakly, and wandringly. 1687Miege Gt. Fr. Dict. ii, Wanderingness, distraction, egarement, d'Esprit. 1825Blackw. Mag. XVIII. 437 His eyes Gleam'd wanderingly with brine unbidden. 1867Tennyson Holy Grail 148 For when was Lancelot wanderingly lewd? |