rout
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /ɹaʊt/
ipa: [ɹʌʊt]
homophone: route (in some pronunciations)
rhymes: -aʊt
Forms: form: routs
Etymology: The noun is derived from Middle English rout, route (“group of people associated with one another, company; entourage, retinue; army; group of soldiers; group of pirates; large number of people, crowd; throng; group of disreputable people, mob; riot; group of animals; group of objects; proper condition or manner”) [and other forms], from Anglo-Norman route, rute, Middle French rote, route, Old French rote, route, rute (“group of people, company; group of armed people; group of criminals; group of cattle”) (modern French route (obsolete)), from Latin rupta (compare Late Latin ruta, rutta (“group of marauders; riot; unlawful assembly”)), the feminine of ruptus (“broken; burst, ruptured”), the perfect passive participle of rumpō (“to break, burst, rupture, tear; to force open; (figurative) to annul; to destroy; to interrupt”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *Hrewp- (“to break; to tear (up)”). The English word is a doublet of route.
The verb is derived from Middle English routen (“to assemble, congregate; of animals: to herd together; to regroup, make a stand against; to be riotous, to riot”) [and other forms], from rout, route (noun); see above.
Senses: examples: text: A route of people there aſſembled were, / Of euery ſort and nation vnder skye, [...]
ref: 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book II, Canto VII”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, stanza 44, page 284:
text: The Incorporations this year did moſtly conſiſt of Cantabrigians who had lately come to this University for preferment from the Viſitors, when the great rout of Royalliſts were by then made in this University.
ref: 1691, [Anthony Wood], “Fasti Oxonienses”, in Athenæ Oxonienses. An Exact History of All the Writers and Bishops who have had Their Education in the Most Ancient and Famous University of Oxford from the Fifteenth Year of King Henry the Seventh, Dom. 1500, to the End of the Year 1690. […], volume I (Extending to the 16th Year of King Charles I. Dom. 1640), London: […] Tho[mas] Bennet […], →OCLC, column 744:
text: 'Is there anyone in this rout with authority to treat with me?' he asked.
ref: 1955, J. R. R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, →OL, page 315:
synonyms: company
gathering
glosses: A group of people; a crowd, a throng, a troop; in particular (archaic), a group of people accompanying or travelling with someone.
glosses: A group of animals, especially one which is lively or unruly, or made up of wild animals such as wolves; a flock, a herd, a pack.
glosses: A group of disorganized things.
examples: text: Beſides the endleſſe routs of wretched thralles, / VVhich thether were aſſembled day by day, / From all the world after their wofull falles, / Through wicked pride, and waſted welthes decay.
ref: 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book I, Canto V”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, stanza 51, page 74:
text: The Ring-leader and Head of all this Rout, / Haue practis'd dangerouſly againſt your State, / Dealing with Witches and with Coniurers, [...]
ref: 1591 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Second Part of Henry the Sixt, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies. […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene i], page 127, column 2:
text: When Gospel-Trumpeter surrounded, / With long-ear'd rout to Battel sounded, / And Pulpit, Drum Ecclesiastick, / Was beat with fist, instead of a stick:
ref: 1662 (indicated as 1663), [Samuel Butler], “[The First Part of Hudibras]. Canto I.”, in Hudibras. The First and Second Parts. […], London: […] John Martyn and Henry Herringman, […], published 1678, →OCLC; republished in A[lfred] R[ayney] Waller, editor, Hudibras: Written in the Time of the Late Wars, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: University Press, 1905, →OCLC, page 3:
text: Nor do I name of men the common rout, / That wandring looſe about / Grow up and periſh, as the ſummer flie, [...]
ref: 1671, John Milton, “Samson Agonistes, […].”, in Paradise Regain’d. A Poem. In IV Books. To which is Added, Samson Agonistes, London: […] J[ohn] M[acock] for John Starkey […], →OCLC, page 44, lines 675–677:
text: [A]lthough there must have been nearly a hundred mongrel celebrants in the throng, the police relied on their firearms and plunged determinedly into the nauseous rout.
ref: 1928 February, H[oward] P[hillips] Lovecraft, “The Call of Cthulhu”, in Farnsworth Wright, editor, Weird Tales: A Magazine of the Bizarre and Unusual, volume 11, number 2, Indianapolis, Ind.: Popular Fiction Pub. Co., →OCLC, pages 159–178 and 287:
text: For it was clearly in search of her that the rabble rout had come. The dancing nymphs hailed her with joyful giggles, the poodle sprang on her with dusty paws, and then turned a somersault in her honour, and from the driver's box came the twang of a guitar and the familiar wail of: Nita, Juanita, ask thy soul if we must part?
ref: 1938, Edith Wharton, chapter IV, in Gaillard [Thomas] Lapsley, editor, The Buccaneers, New York, N.Y.; London: D[aniel] Appleton-Century Company, →OCLC, book I, page 43:
glosses: A group of (often violent) criminals or gangsters; such people as a class; (more generally) a disorderly and tumultuous crowd, a mob; hence (archaic, preceded by the), the common people as a group, the rabble.
examples: text: The Ducheſs or Marlborough had one of the grandeſt routs that has been given for ſome time, almoſt the whole of the firſt people of rank and faſhion in England being preſent. This being a new birth to conviviality in Marlborough Houſe, and the firſt rout for theſe ſeven laſt years, it was uncommonly crouded.
ref: 1783 May, “Domestic Occurrences. [Thursday 8.]”, in Sylvanus Urban [pseudonym; Edward Cave], editor, The Gentleman’s Magazine and Historical Chronicle, volume LIII, London: […] John Nichols, for D. Henry, […], and sold by E[lizabeth] Newbery, […], →OCLC, page 444, column 2:
text: Come then, ſweet ſpring's delights to taſte; / No longer, my Maria, waſte / Thoſe hours in routs and noiſe, [...]
ref: 1799 January, “An Ode. The Invitation.”, in The Monthly Magazine, or British Register, volume VII, part I, number XLI, London: […] R[ichard] Phillips, […], →OCLC, page 43, column 1:
text: The ancients have always been opposed to them; just as, at routs and dances, elderly beauties to younger.
ref: 1826, Walter Savage Landor, “Conversation IV. Southey and Porson.”, in Imaginary Conversations of Literary Men and Statesmen, 2nd edition, volume I, London: Henry Colburn, […], →OCLC, page 78:
text: The envoys were not often compelled to forego the toilet for the desk, nor the beaux secretaires, to give up their lessons on the guitar for the drudgery of copying dispatches. A "protocol" would have scared the gentle state from its propriety; and the arrival of the Morning Post, once a week from London, with the account of routs in which they had not shared, and the anticipation of dinners and déjeûnés which they were never to enjoy, was the only pain which Diplomacy suffered to raise a ripple on the tranquil surface of its soul.
ref: 1832 January, “The Premier and His Wife: A Story of the Great World”, in Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine, volume XXXI, number CLXXXIX, Edinburgh: William Blackwood; London: T[homas] Cadell, […], →OCLC, page 91, column 2:
text: By a little inquiry regarding his mother's engagements, he was pretty soon able to find out by whom of her ladyship's friends parties were given at that season; where he would be likely to meet Osborne's sisters; and, though he had that abhorrence of routs and evening parties which many sensible men, alas, entertain, he soon found one where the Miss Osbornes were to be present.
ref: 1847 January – 1848 July, William Makepeace Thackeray, “Captain Dobbin Proceeds on His Canvass”, in Vanity Fair […], London: Bradbury and Evans […], published 1848, →OCLC, page 194:
glosses: A fashionable assembly; a large evening party, a soirée.
examples: text: "Nay, child! it is not well," I said, / "Among the graves to shout; / To laugh and play among the dead, / And make this noisy rout."
ref: 1838, Richard Chenevix Trench, “A Walk in a Church-yard”, in Sabbation; Honor Neale; and Other Poems, London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC, stanza II, page 62:
glosses: A noisy disturbance; also, a disorderly argument or fight, a brawl; (uncountable) disturbance of the peace, commotion, tumult.
topics: law
glosses: An illegal assembly of people; specifically, three or more people who have come together intending to do something illegal, and who have taken steps towards this, regarded as more serious than an unlawful assembly but not as serious as a riot; the act of assembling in this manner.
Derived terms: revel-rout
rout cake
rout chair
routous
routously
rout seat