See Also: wandering(2)(dictionary)
wandering(1)(dictionary)
wandering(medicine)
polar wandering(encyclopedia)
wandering pneumonia(medicine)
wandering pacemaker(medicine)
wandering organ(medicine)
wandering macrophage(medicine)
wandering liver(medicine)
wandering kidney(medicine)

wandering(1) (iou)



wandering ppl adjective. OE.
[formed as WANDERER + -ING2.]
Of a person or animal: travelling from place to place without a fixed route or destination, aimlessly roaming, vagrant. OE.
b. Nomadic, migratory. LME.
a. Of the mind, thoughts, etc.: passing randomly from one subject to another, vague, restless. LME.
b. Of a celestial body, esp. a planet: not fixed, having a separate individual motion. E16.
c. Of a road, river, etc.: lying in an irregularly bending line, winding, meandering. M16.
d. Of a thing: travelling or carried along in an uncertain or frequently changing direction; moving to and fro. L16.
e. Of the eyes: roving, turning this way and that. L16.
f. Of a plant: sending out long tendrils, runners, or trailing shoots. Cf. wandering Jew (c), wandering sailor below. L16.
g. Medicine & Physiology. Of a disease, pain, cell, etc.: moving randomly from one part of the body to another. L16.
h. Medicine. Of an organ etc.: too loosely fixed in place; abnormally movable. L19.
Of a journey, life, etc.: characterized by wandering. L16.
Deviating or straying from the right path or a fixed course; fig. (of a person) erring, disloyal. E17.
Special collocations: wandering cell History of Science an amoeboid cell. wandering fire will-o'-the-wisp. wandering hands colloq. (freq. joc.) a tendency on the part of a man to fondle female colleagues or acquaintances uninvited. wandering Jew (a) (with the) in medieval legend, a man who insulted Jesus on the day of the Crucifixion and was condemned to roam the world until the Day of Judgement; (b) fig. any person who indulges in restless and unprofitable travelling from place to place; (c) any of various creeping or trailing plants; esp. any of several spiderworts, Tradescantia albiflora, T. fluminensis, and T. zonata, grown as house-plants. wandering nerve = VAGUS. wandering sailor (a) ivy-leaved toadflax, Cymbalaria muralis; (b) creeping Jenny, Lysimachia nummularia. wandering star (now arch. & literary) a planet.
wanderingly adverb M16.