English

Verb

maunder ‎(third-person singular simple present maunders, present participle maundering, simple past and past participle maundered)

1. To speak in a disorganized or desultory manner; to babble or prattle.
   • Sir Walter Scott

     He was ever maundering by the how that he met a party of scarlet devils.

   • 1834, Maria Edgeworth, Helen, v. 3, ch. V:

     "Not so fast, Lady Cecilia; not yet;" and now Louisa went on with a medical maundering. "As to low spirits, my dear Cecilia, I must say I agree with Sir Sib Pennyfeather, who tells me it is not mere common low spirits […] "

   • 1871, Henry James, A Passionate Pilgrim, ch. IV:

     On the following day my friend's exhaustion had become so great that I began to fear his intelligence altogether broken up. But toward evening he briefly rallied, to maunder about many things, confounding in a sinister jumble the memories of the past weeks and those of bygone years.

   • 1889, Mark Twain, A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court, ch. XVII:

     "What are you maundering about? He's going out from here a free man and whole—he's not going to die."

   • 2014 November 14, Blake Bailey, “'Tennessee Williams,' by John Lahr [print version: Theatrical victory of art over life, International New York Times, 18 November 2014, p. 13]”, in The New York Times:

     Whether Edwina [mother of Tennessee Williams] had sufficient self-awareness to recognize her own maundering about (say) "seventeen! – gentleman callers!" is doubtful, but she was indeed Amanda [Wingfield, character in Williams' play The Glass Menagerie] in the flesh: a doughty chatterbox from Ohio who adopted the manner of a Southern belle and eschewed both drink and sex to the greatest extent possible.

2. To wander or walk aimlessly.

Synonyms

• (speak in a disorganized manner): babble, prattle, ramble
• (to walk aimlessly): ramble, wander

Related terms

• maunderer
• maundering

References

• 1827, Samuel Johnson, A Dictionary of the English Language:

  2. To wander about in a thoughtful manner; to talk confusedly; [perhaps from the Gael. mandagh, a stutterer.] A northern word. It is written both maunder and mander.

Translations

Noun

maunder ‎(plural maunders)

1. (obsolete) A beggar.

Anagrams

• duramen
• manured
• unarmed
• undream