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Webster 1913 Edition


Maunder

{

Maund

,

Maund′er

, }
Verb.
I.
[Cf. F.
mendier
to beg, E.
mendicant
.]
1.
To beg.
[Obs.]
B. Jonson. Beau. & Fl.
2.
To mutter; to mumble; to grumble; to speak indistinctly or disconnectedly; to talk incoherently.
He was ever
maundering
by the how that he met a party of scarlet devils.
Sir W. Scott.

Maund′er

,
Verb.
T.
To utter in a grumbling manner; to mutter.

Maund′er

,
Noun.
A beggar.
[Obs.]

Webster 1828 Edition


Maunder

MAUND'ER

,
Verb.
T.
and i. To mutter; to murmur; to grumble; to beg.

MAUND'ER

,
Noun.
A beggar.

Definition 2024


maunder

maunder

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

Related terms

References

Translations

Noun

maunder (plural maunders)

  1. (obsolete) A beggar.

Anagrams