meandering

American  

[mee-an-der-ing] / miˈæn dər ɪŋ /

adjective

1. taking a winding or indirect course.

   The city of Budapest is divided into two parts by the meandering Danube River, spanned by several stunning bridges.

2. wandering aimlessly; proceeding seemingly without direction; rambling.

   I'm unsure how I will condense a meandering narrative of my experiences into a thirty-second elevator pitch.

   Things proceed in a meandering way between them, until suddenly their relationship comes to a devastatingly emotional climax.

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noun

1. the act of wandering or proceeding aimlessly or by a winding or indirect course.

   I digress—but I blame it on the mental meandering of age.

   After a coffee and some meandering among the displays on the hotel mezzanine, I left the convention.

Other Word Forms

• meanderingly adverb
• unmeandering adjective
• unmeanderingly adverb

Etymology

Origin of meandering

First recorded in 1610–20; meander ( def. ) + -ing ² ( def. ) for the adjective senses; meander ( def. ) + -ing ¹ ( def. ) for the noun sense

Example Sentences

Since then, the 79-year-old Republican has rarely missed an opportunity to discuss the project, frequently meandering in mid-speech on other topics to riff about the architectural details of the proposed facility.

From Barron's • Mar. 31, 2026

Occasionally the wiggles get bigger and that can result in big curves in the flow - like a meandering river.

From BBC • Feb. 10, 2026

But a handful still survive — routes that don’t carve a straight line but follow the meandering, undulating contours of the land.

From Los Angeles Times • Feb. 5, 2026

Instead it sent him on empty assignments, like meandering the vacuous desert sprawl.

From Slate • Feb. 2, 2026

“I am lost at sea,” she said as she limped along beside her meandering rivulet, “so perhaps I’ll find some crabs, or a nice fat fish.”

From "A Dance with Dragons" by George R. R. Martin