roam

EnglishEdit

EtymologyEdit

From Middle English romen, from Old English rāmian, from Proto-Germanic *raimōną (“to wander”), from *raim- (“to move, raise”), from *h₃reyH- (“to move, lift, flow”). Akin to Old English ārǣman (“to arise, stand up, lift up”), Old High German rāmēn (“to aim”)^[1] ( > archaic German rahmen (“to strive”)), Middle Dutch rammen (“to night-wander, to copulate”), rammelen (“to wander about, ramble”). More at ramble.

PronunciationEdit

(Received Pronunciation) enPR: rōm, IPA^(key): /ɹəʊm/
(General American) enPR: rōm, IPA^(key): /ɹoʊm/
Audio (US) (file)
Homophones: Rome
Rhymes: -əʊm

VerbEdit

roam (third-person singular simple present roams, present participle roaming, simple past and past participle roamed)

(intransitive) To wander or travel freely and with no specific destination.
- 1986, Marc Jordan and John Capek, “Rhythm of My Heart”, in Vagabond Heart‎^[1], published 1991, performed by Rod Stewart:
  Oh, never will I roam / Now I know my place is home / Where the ocean meets the sky / I'll be sailin'
- 2013 November 26, Daniel Taylor, “Jack Wilshere scores twice to ease Arsenal to victory over Marseille”, in The Guardian‎^[2], archived from the original on 22 December 2021:
  Wilshere had started as a left-footed right-winger, coming in off the flank, but he and Özil both had the licence to roam. Tomas Rosicky was not tied down to one spot either and, with Ramsey breaking forward as well as Olivier Giroud's considerable presence, Marseille were overwhelmed from the moment Bacary Sagna's first touch of the night sent Wilshere running clear.
(intransitive, computing, telecommunications) To use a network or service from different locations or devices.
(transitive, computing, telecommunications) To transmit (resources) between different locations or devices, to allow comparable usage from any of them.
- 2013, Scott Isaacs, Kyle Burns, Beginning Windows Store Application Development
  At first, it seemed counterintuitive to me to roam settings between computers, but my problem at the time was that every example I was considering was a setting that only made sense for a single computer.
(transitive) To range or wander over.
- 1671, John Milton, “The First Book”, in Paradise Regain’d. A Poem. In IV Books. To which is Added, Samson Agonistes, London: […] J. M[acock] for John Starkey […], →OCLC:
  And now wild beasts came forth the woods to roam.
- 2013 June 8, “Obama goes troll-hunting”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8839, page 55:
  According to this saga of intellectual-property misanthropy, these creatures [patent trolls] roam the business world, buying up patents and then using them to demand extravagant payouts from companies they accuse of infringing them.
Gangs of thugs roamed the streets.