roam

English

Etymology

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”) ( > archaic German rahmen (“to strive”)), Middle Dutch rammen (“to night-wander, to copulate”), rammelen (“to wander about, ramble”). More at ramble.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) enPR: rōm, IPA^(key): /ɹəʊm/
• (General American) enPR: rōm, IPA^(key): /ɹoʊm/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Homophone: Rome
• Rhymes: -əʊm

Verb

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

1. (intransitive) To wander or travel freely and with no specific destination.
   • 1850, [Alfred, Lord Tennyson], In Memoriam, London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC, Canto XVII, page 28:

     Henceforth, wherever thou may’st roam,
     ⁠My blessing, like a line of light,
     ⁠Is on the waters day and night,
     And like a beacon guards thee home.

   • 1986, Marc Jordan, John Capek, “Rhythm of My Heart”, in Vagabond Heart‎^[1], performed by Rod Stewart, published 1991:

     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.

2. (transitive) To range or wander over.

   Gangs of thugs roamed the streets.

   • 1671, John Milton, “The First Book”, in Paradise Regain’d. A Poem. In IV Books. To which is Added, Samson Agonistes, London: […] J[ohn] 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.

3. (intransitive, computing, telecommunications) To use a network or service from different locations or devices.
4. (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.

Synonyms

• (wander freely): err, shrithe, wander

Derived terms

• freedom to roam
• free roam
• free-roaming
• right to roam
• roamer
• roaming eye
• roaming master

 

Translations

wander freely

• Afrikaans: wandel (af)
• Arabic: تَجَوَّلَ (tajawwala)
• Bulgarian: скитам (bg) (skitam), бродя (bg) (brodja)
• Catalan: vagar (ca)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 漫遊 / 漫游 (zh) (mànyóu), 漫步 (zh) (mànbù)

• Dutch: rondwandelen (nl), wandelen (nl), rondlopen (nl), dwalen (nl), ronddwalen (nl), zwerven (nl)
• Esperanto: migri
• Finnish: vaellella (fi), kuljeskella (fi), harhailla (fi)
• French: errer (fr)
• German: wandern (de), umherziehen (de)
• Gothic: 𐍈𐌰𐍂𐌱𐍉𐌽 (ƕarbōn)
• Greek:

  Ancient: ῥέμβομαι (rhémbomai)

• Hebrew: שוטט (he) (shotét), נדד (nadád)
• Hindi: घूमना (hi) (ghūmnā)
• Hungarian: barangol (hu), kóborol (hu), kószál (hu)
• Ingrian: häylyä, häylää
• Italian: vagare (it), girovagare (it)
• Japanese: 歩き回る (ja) (あるきまわる, arukimawaru), うろつく (ja) (urotsuku), さ迷う (ja) (さまよう, samayou)
• Kazakh: кезу (kezu)
• Khiamniungan Naga: làikēi
• Korean: 돌아다니다 (ko) (doradanida)
• Latin: vagor, pālor
• Maori: takawhaki, tahawhenua, kōkewa
• Nepali: डुल्नु (ḍulnu)
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: virre rundt

• Persian: ول گشتن (vel gaštan), پرسه زدن (fa) (porse zadan)
• Portuguese: vagar (pt), vaguear (pt)
• Romanian: hoinări (ro)
• Russian: броди́ть (ru) impf (brodítʹ), скита́ться (ru) impf (skitátʹsja), стра́нствовать (ru) impf (stránstvovatʹ)
• Spanish: vagar (es), yirar (es) (River Plate), deambular (es), callejear (es), ruar (es), veletear (Central America), tunar (es), cancanear (es)
• Thai: ท่องเที่ยว (th) (tɔ̂ng-tîao)
• Turkish: dolanmak (tr), dolaşmak (tr), gezinmek (tr)
• Ukrainian: блука́ти (uk) impf (blukáty)
• Vietnamese: lang thang (vi)

wander freely in groups

• Khiamniungan Naga: ūo

(Computing) To use a network or services from different locations or devices

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 漫遊 / 漫游 (zh) (mànyóu)

• Finnish: vierailla (fi)
• Hungarian: barangol (hu)
• Maori: tīpakopako

Noun

roam (plural roams)

1. The act of roaming; a wander; a travel without aim or destination
   • 2017, Rick Maloy, Evenings and Mournings:

     Glass in hand, he set off on a roam of the first floor.

Anagrams

• moar, Maor, Roma, Mora, Oram, Omar, Amor, armo, amor, roma, Ramo, mora, Armo

Galician

Verb

roam

1. (reintegrationist norm) inflection of roer:
   1. third-person plural present subjunctive
   2. third-person plural imperative

Portuguese

Verb

roam

1. inflection of roer:
   1. third-person plural present subjunctive
   2. third-person plural imperative