meander

• mæander (archaic)

From Latin Maeander, from Ancient Greek Μαίανδρος (Maíandros) – a river in Asia Minor (present day Turkey) known for its winding course (modern Turkish Menderes).

• (UK, General Australian) IPA^(key): /miˈæn.də(ɹ)/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• (US, Canada) IPA^(key): /miˈæn.dɚ/

• Audio (General American):

  (file)

meander (plural meanders)

1. (often plural) One of the turns of a winding, crooked, or involved course.

   the meanders of an old river, or of the veins and arteries in the body

2. (geography) One of a series of regular sinuous curves, bends, loops, turns, or windings in the channel of a river, stream, or other watercourse
   • 1712, Sir Richard Blackmore, Creation: A Philosophical Poem:

     See, how the streams advancing to the main, / Through crooked channels draw their crystal train! / While lingering thus they in meanders glide, / They scatter verdant life on either side.

3. A tortuous or winding journey.
   • 2014 August 1, Enders A. Robinson, Dean Clark, Remote Sensing in Action: The Curious Case of Sherlock Holmes and Albert Einstein, SEG Books, →ISBN, page 30:

     That journey in the spring of 1891 tracked historical underpinnings of the edifice that Einstein built. Our story will be an extremely interesting mental meander to trace the evolution some of the aspects of relativity theory from the beginning.

4. Synonym of Greek key, a decorative border; fretwork.
   • 1912, Field Museum of Natural History, Anthropological Series, page 227:

     The scales are conceived of as meander fretwork; but I do not know whether, for this reason, this fish is associated with thunder.

   • 2008, Todd Merrill, James Mont: The King Cole Penthouse, Lulu.com, →ISBN:

     A chair rail adorned with Chinese fretwork molding was a specific meander that repeated throughout the home. Moldings shaped as cartouches lined each wall, […]

5. (mathematics) A self-avoiding closed curve which intersects a line a number of times.
6. (possibly obsolete) A path on which the directions, distances, and elevations are noted, as a part of a land survey.
   • 1894, United States Bureau of Land Management, Manual of Surveying Instructions for the Survey of the Public Lands of the United States and Private Land Claims, page 44:

     Markings on Meander Corners. On all meander corners, the letters “M. C.” ( for meander corner) will be cut into the side facing the stream or lake to be meandered. On post or tree meander corners, within township exteriors […]

   • 1911, United States House Committee on Public Lands, Providing for Appeals from Decisions of the Interior Department in Land Matters: Hearing Held Before the Committee on the Public Lands of the House Representatives, June 22, 1910, on H.R. 27071, "To Provide for Appeals from Decisions of the Secretary of the Interior to the Court of Appeals of the District of Columbia, and for Other Purposes.", page 56:

     And as to the lands that were within the national meander boundaries, that description was based upon a state survey?

7. (architecture) A decorative border consisting of a repeated linear motif, particularly of intersecting perpendicular lines.

meander (third-person singular simple present meanders, present participle meandering, simple past and past participle meandered)

1. (intransitive) To wind or turn in a course or passage

   Synonyms: wind, worm, wander

   The stream meandered through the valley.

   • 1881, Edwin Lester Arnold, On the Indian Hills‎^[1]:

     Instead of a rivulet meandering downwards, there was a foaming brown torrent racing over the ledge, carrying down great loose stones with it and falling with a loud roar far down into the unseen chasm below.

   • 2020 November 18, Paul Bigland, “New infrastructure and new rolling stock”, in Rail, page 51:

     I'd forgotten how scenic parts of the line are - the railway crosses a host of streams while meandering through meadows or skirting woodland.

2. (intransitive) To be intricate.

   His speech meandered through various topics.

3. (transitive) To wind, turn, or twist; to make flexuous.
   • 1612, Michael Drayton, “(please specify the chapter)”, in [John Selden], editor, Poly-Olbion. Or A Chorographicall Description of Tracts, Riuers, Mountaines, Forests, and Other Parts of this Renowned Isle of Great Britaine, […], London: […] [Humphrey Lownes] for M[athew] Lownes; I[ohn] Browne; I[ohn] Helme; I[ohn] Busbie, →OCLC:

     Her labyrinth-like ţurns, and mad meander'd trace […]

• The Chambers Dictionary (1998)
• William Dwight Whitney, Benjamin E[li] Smith, editors (1911), “meander”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., →OCLC.

• meander on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• Büyük Menderes River on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

• renamed, Deerman, Ramdeen, reamend, enarmed, Merenda, amender, reedman

Borrowed from Latin maeander, Maeander, from Ancient Greek Μαίανδρος (Maíandros).

• IPA^(key): /meːˈɑn.dər/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɑndər

meander m (plural meanders, diminutive meandertje n)

1. meander

• meander on the Dutch Wikipedia.Wikipedia ^nl

From Latin Maeander, from Ancient Greek Μαίανδρος (Maíandros).

meander m (definite singular meanderen, indefinite plural meandere or meandre or meandrer, definite plural meanderne or meandrene)

1. a meander (in a river)

• meandersjø
• meandrere

• “meander” in The Bokmål Dictionary.
• “meander” in Det Norske Akademis ordbok (NAOB).

From Latin Maeander, from Ancient Greek Μαίανδρος (Maíandros).

meander m (definite singular meanderen, indefinite plural meandrar, definite plural meandrane)

1. a meander (in a river)

• meandersjø

• “meander” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.

Borrowed from German Mäander.

• IPA^(key): /mɛˈan.dɛr/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Rhymes: -andɛr
• Syllabification: me‧an‧der

meander m inan (related adjective meandrowy)

2. meander (one of a series of regular sinuous curves, bends, loops, turns, or windings in the channel of a river, stream, or other watercourse)

   Synonym: zakole

4. meander, meandros (decorative border constructed from a continuous line, shaped into a repeated motif)

• meander in Wielki słownik języka polskiego, Instytut Języka Polskiego PAN
• meander in Polish dictionaries at PWN

• IPA^(key): [ˈmeanɟer]

meander m inan (genitive singular meandra, nominative plural meandre, genitive plural meandrov, declension pattern of stroj)

1. meander (one of a series of regular sinuous curves, bends, loops, turns, or windings in the channel of a river, stream, or other watercourse)

• “meander”, in Slovníkový portál Jazykovedného ústavu Ľ. Štúra SAV [Dictionary portal of the Ľ. Štúr Institute of Linguistics, Slovak Academy of Science] (in Slovak), https://slovnik.juls.savba.sk, 2003–2025

From Latin Maeander, from Ancient Greek Μαίανδρος (Maíandros).

meander c

1. a meander (in a river)

• meander in Svensk ordbok (SO)
• meander in Svenska Akademiens ordlista (SAOL)
• meander in Svenska Akademiens ordbok (SAOB)