roam
- 01 B2 Upper Intermediate
v.to walk or travel around an area without a specific goal or direction.
v.to wander or travel over a wide area without a fixed itinerary or destination. Often used intransitively or with a direct object.
Simple“The sheep were allowed to roam freely across the hills all summer.”
In context“During the sabbatical, he spent months roaming the small villages of southern Europe, guided only by his curiosity and the local weather.”
- 02 B2 Upper Intermediate
v.to use your mobile phone on a different network, usually when you are in another country.
v.to connect to a foreign or secondary network when outside the coverage area of one's home service provider.
Simple“Check your phone plan to see if you can roam for free in Europe.”
In context“Subscribers are often surprised by high data charges when their devices automatically roam onto local networks while abroad.”
UsageThe verb is intransitive in this context.
- 03 C2 Proficiency
n.a walk or trip without a specific destination.
n.an instance of wandering or travelling without a fixed goal.
Simple“After lunch, we went for a long roam through the woods.”
In context“His daily roam through the ancient library provided the quiet contemplation he needed for his research.”
“She’d roam London forming sentences in her head, then simply write them down, at speed.”
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.
Etymology adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.