meander
/miˈæn.də(ɹ)//miˈæn.dɚ/
meander noun: one of the turns of a winding, crooked, or involved course.
Noun
meander (plural meanders)
- One of the turns of a winding, crooked, or involved course.
- the meanders of an old river, or of the veins and arteries in the body
- One of a series of regular sinuous curves, bends, loops, turns, or windings in the channel of a river, stream, or other watercourse
- See, how the streams advancing to the main, / Through crooked channels draw their crystal train! / While lingering thus they in meanders glide, / They scatter verdant life on either side.1712, Sir Richard Blackmore, Creation: A Philosophical Poem
- A tortuous or winding journey.
- That journey in the spring of 1891 tracked historical underpinnings of the edifice that Einstein built. Our story will be an extremely interesting mental meander to trace the evolution some of the aspects of relativity theory from the beginning.2014 August 1, Enders A. Robinson, Dean Clark, Remote Sensing in Action: The Curious Case of Sherlock Holmes and Albert Einstein, SEG Books, →ISBN, page 30
- Synonym of Greek key, a decorative border; fretwork.
- The scales are conceived of as meander fretwork; but I do not know whether, for this reason, this fish is associated with thunder.1912, Field Museum of Natural History, Anthropological Series, page 227
- A chair rail adorned with Chinese fretwork molding was a specific meander that repeated throughout the home. Moldings shaped as cartouches lined each wall,[…]2008, Todd Merrill, James Mont: The King Cole Penthouse, Lulu.com, →ISBN
- Synonyms:
- Greek key
- A self-avoiding closed curve which intersects a line a number of times.
- A path on which the directions, distances, and elevations are noted, as a part of a land survey.
- Markings on Meander Corners. On all meander corners, the letters “M. C.” ( for meander corner) will be cut into the side facing the stream or lake to be meandered. On post or tree meander corners, within township exteriors[…]1894, United States Bureau of Land Management, Manual of Surveying Instructions for the Survey of the Public Lands of the United States and Private Land Claims, page 44
- And as to the lands that were within the national meander boundaries, that description was based upon a state survey?1911, United States House Committee on Public Lands, Providing for Appeals from Decisions of the Interior Department in Land Matters: Hearing Held Before the Committee on the Public Lands of the...
- A decorative border consisting of a repeated linear motif, particularly of intersecting perpendicular lines.
Verb
meander (third-person singular simple present meanders, present participle meandering, simple past and past participle meandered)
- To wind or turn in a course or passage
- The stream meandered through the valley.
- Instead of a rivulet meandering downwards, there was a foaming brown torrent racing over the ledge, carrying down great loose stones with it and falling with a loud roar far down into the unseen chasm below.1881, Edwin Lester Arnold, On the Indian Hills
- To be intricate.
- His speech meandered through various topics.
- To wind, turn, or twist; to make flexuous.
- Her labyrinth-like ţurns, and mad meander'd trace[…]1612, Michael Drayton, “(please specify the chapter)”, in [John Selden], editor, Poly-Olbion. Or A Chorographicall Description of Tracts, Riuers, Mountaines, Forests, and Other Parts of this Renowned...
Proper noun capitalized: Meander
Meander
meander meaning in Tamil, Urdu, Bengali and Malayalam
meander in Tamil
- சிக்கலரிவேலை, நெளிவு ஆறு, வளைவு ஆறு, நெளியாறு, நெளிவுபாதை, பசைக் கீல்
meander in Urdu
- آوارہ گردی کرنا
meander in Bengali
- ঘুরে ফিরে চলা
meander in Malayalam
- wind, zigzag, twist
- വളഞ്ഞുതിരിഞ്ഞുപോകുക, വളഞ്ഞുപുളഞ്ഞതായിരിക്കുക, തിരിയുക, ചുറ്റുക, പോഴുക, പിരിയുക
- wander, stroll, saunter
- ചുറ്റിത്തിരിയുക, ചുറ്റിനടക്കുക, അലസമായി നടക്കുക, ലാത്തുക, വെറുതെ ചുറ്റിനടക്കുക, മന്ദഗമനം ചെയ്യുക
More languagesFewer languages
- meander in Arabic
- تَعَرَّجَ taʕarraja
Examples of meander in a sentence
- The meander in the river had been become incised as a result of tectonic uplift.
- The mysterious woman meandered up the street, shailing and leaning precariously at times.
- An oxbow lake is a crescent-shaped lake formed near a flat-valleyed river when one of its meanders becomes pinched off and isolated.
Synonyms of meander
Forms of meander
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | meanders |
| alternative form (archaic) | mæander |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | meanders |
| present participle | meandering |
| past participle | meandered |
| past | meandered |
Origin of meander
From Latin Maeander, from Ancient Greek Μαίανδρος (Maíandros) – a river in Asia Minor (present day Turkey) known for its winding course (modern Turkish Menderes).
Words formed from meander
- Meander Valley
- incised meander
- meander belt
- meanderer
- meanderian
- meanderic
- meanderiform
- meanderine
- meandering
- meander line
- meander loop
- meandersome
- meanderthal
- meandery
- meandric
- meandrous
- meandry
- palaeomeander
Questions about meander
- What does meander mean?
- Meander means one of the turns of a winding, crooked, or involved course.
- What is meander in Tamil?
- Meander in Tamil is சிக்கலரிவேலை, நெளிவு ஆறு, வளைவு ஆறு. See Meander meaning in Tamil.
- What part of speech is meander?
- Meander can be a noun, a verb or a proper noun.
- How do you pronounce meander?
- Meander is pronounced /miˈæn.də(ɹ)/ (UK).
- What is the plural of meander?
- The plural of meander is meanders.
Words near meander in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: meander (page history and authors); Meander (page history and authors); meander (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); meander (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); meander (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); meander (Olam, E.K. Kurup corpus) (dataset and license). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-meander.wav, LL-Q1860 (eng)-Naomi Persephone Amethyst (NaomiAmethyst)-meander.wav.
Cite this entry: “meander.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/meander. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.