ambulate

English

Etymology

From Latin ambulatus, past participle of ambulō (“I walk, go about”). Doublet of amble.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈæm.bjʊ.leɪt/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈæm.bjuˌleɪt/, /ˈæm.bjəˌleɪt/, /ˈæm.bjəˌleɪt/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -æmbjʊleɪt
• Hyphenation: am‧bu‧late

Verb

ambulate (third-person singular simple present ambulates, present participle ambulating, simple past and past participle ambulated)

1. (intransitive, formal) To walk; to relocate oneself under the power of one's own legs.

   Peter slowly ambulated to the bathroom, favoring his strained knee.

   • 1990 February 4, Margy Dowzer, Mary Frances Platt, Aviva Shmuckler, “Disability And Accessibility Cost Money!”, in Gay Community News, volume 17, number 29, page 13:

     I'm working in social services, but I'm also suffering from a lot of chronic pain and limitation. I can't really sit at my desk because I need to ambulate a lot.

Synonyms

• See Thesaurus:walk

Derived terms

• ambulative
• preambulate
• reambulate

Related terms

• ambi-
• amble
• ambulance
• ambulant
• ambulation
• ambulator
• ambulatory
• circumambulate
• deambulate
• funambulate
• somnambulate

Translations

walk; relocate oneself using one's legs

German: gehen (de), wandeln (de), umherwandeln, umherziehen (de), herumspazieren (de), herumwandeln (de) Russian: передвига́ться (ru) impf (peredvigátʹsja), ходи́ть (ru) impf (xodítʹ)

Further reading

• “ambulate”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• William Dwight Whitney, Benjamin E[li] Smith, editors (1911), “ambulate”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., →OCLC.

Latin

Verb

ambulāte

1. second-person plural present active imperative of ambulō

Participle

ambulāte

1. vocative masculine singular of ambulātus

Spanish

Verb

ambulate

1. second-person singular voseo imperative of ambular combined with te