Definition of rout

Email this page to a friend

< roustabout

rout >

rout¹    (rout) KEY 

NOUN:

1. 1. A disorderly retreat or flight following defeat.
   2. An overwhelming defeat.
2. 1. A disorderly crowd of people; a mob.
   2. People of the lowest class; rabble.
3. A public disturbance; a riot.
4. A company, as of knights or wolves, that are in movement. See Synonyms at flock¹.
5. A fashionable gathering.

TRANSITIVE VERB:
rout·ed, rout·ing, routs

1. To put to disorderly flight or retreat: "the flock of starlings which Jasper had routed with his gun" (Virginia Woolf).
2. To defeat overwhelmingly. See Synonyms at defeat.

---

ETYMOLOGY:
Middle English route, from Old French, troop, defeat, from Vulgar Latin *rupta, from feminine of Latin ruptus, past participle of rumpere, to break; see reup- in Indo-European roots