Word.ws English Dictionary

saunter

/ˈsɔːntə/US/ˈsɔntɚ/

saunter verb: to stroll, or walk at a leisurely pace.

Verb

saunter (third-person singular simple present saunters, present participle sauntering, simple past and past participle sauntered)

  1. (intransitive) To stroll, or walk at a leisurely pace.
    • One could lie under elm trees in a lawn, or saunter in meadows by the side of a stream.1858-1880, David Masson, The Life Of John Milton: 1649-1654
    • She heard the door underneath unclose, and from underneath the green verandah she saw her mother saunter out.1880, Ouida [pseudonym; Maria Louise Ramé], chapter II, in Moths […], volume I, London: Chatto & Windus, […], →OCLC, page 54
    Synonyms:
    amble, stroll, ramble, wander

Noun

saunter (plural saunters)

  1. A leisurely walk or stroll.
    • Caroline […] begged that the drive might be given up for a saunter about the gardens[…]1814, Elizabeth Hervey, Amabel, volume 1, page 53
  2. A leisurely, easy pace.
    • walking at a saunter
  3. (obsolete) A place for sauntering or strolling.
    • That wheel of fops, that saunter of the town.1725–1728, [Edward Young], “(please specify the page)”, in Love of Fame, the Universal Passion. In Seven Characteristical Satires, 4th edition, London: […] J[acob] and R[ichard] Tonson […], published...

saunter meaning in Tamil, Bengali, Malayalam and Kannada

saunter in Tamil

திரிதல், சுற்றித்திரி

saunter in Bengali

মন্থর গতিতে, অলসভাবে ঘুরে বেড়ানো

saunter in Malayalam

amble, stroll, wander
വെറുതെ നടക്കുക, ചുറ്റിത്തിരിയുക, കറങ്ങിത്തിരിയുക, അലസമായി ചുറ്റിത്തിരിയുക, മന്ദഗമനം ചെയ്യുക, അടി അളക്കുക

saunter in Kannada

ಆರಾಮವಾಗಿ ಅಡ್ಡಾಡು, ಬಿಡುಬೀಸಾಗಿ ತಿರುಗಾಡು, ಠಳಾಯಿಸು, ಸಾವಕಾಶವಾಗಿ ಓಡಾಡು, ವಿರಾಮವಾಗಿ ನಡೆ
More languagesFewer languages
saunter in Persian
سیر کردن seyr kardan

Examples of saunter in a sentence

  • “Dum de dum, dum de dum”, he hummed as he sauntered down the road.
  • Though our clayey feet still press the earth the levitant soul may saunter among the stars.
  • It was the Paris of Pierre-Auguste Renoir’s tangled lunchers and Gustave Caillebotte’s sauntering flâneur.

All 24 example sentences with saunter

Synonyms of saunter

Forms of saunter

Verb
third-person singular presentsaunters
present participlesauntering
past participlesauntered
pastsauntered
Noun
pluralsaunters

Past tense of saunter: sauntered

Origin of saunter

Etymology unclear. Attested in the sense “to stroll” from the 1660s; noun sense “a stroll” attested 1828. Likely from earlier term meaning “to muse”, late 15th century, from late Middle English santren, of unknown origin. Competing theories exist: * From Anglo-Norman sauntrer (mid 14th century), from Middle French s'aventurer (“to take risks”); however, this is considered unlikely by the OED. Compare Middle English aunter (“adventure”). * Of Germanic origin, with proposed cognates including German schlendern, Dutch slenteren, Danish slentre, Swedish släntra, and Icelandic slentur, all meaning “to stroll”. * From Old French sentier (“path”). In this case, santren would reflect earlier *sa(u)nteren, *senteren /sa(u̯)nˈteːrən/, /sɛnˈteːrən/, with Late Middle English stress shift and concomitant vowel reduction. Various fanciful folk etymologies have also been given.

Words formed from saunter

Words that rhyme with saunter

Questions about saunter

What does saunter mean?
Saunter means to stroll, or walk at a leisurely pace.
What is saunter in Tamil?
Saunter in Tamil is திரிதல், சுற்றித்திரி. See Saunter meaning in Tamil.
What part of speech is saunter?
Saunter can be a verb or a noun.
How do you pronounce saunter?
Saunter is pronounced /ˈsɔntɚ/ (US).
What is the past tense of saunter?
The past tense of saunter is sauntered.

Words near saunter in the dictionary

  1. saung
  2. saungs
  3. Saunier
  4. Sauniers
  5. sauns
  6. saunter
  7. sauntered
  8. saunterer
  9. saunterers
  10. sauntering
  11. saunteringly

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: saunter (page history and authors); saunter (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); saunter (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); saunter (Olam, E.K. Kurup corpus) (dataset and license); saunter (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors). 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-saunter.wav.

Cite this entry: “saunter.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/saunter. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.