rout
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /ɹaʊt/
ipa: [ɹʌʊt]
homophone: route (in some pronunciations)
rhymes: -aʊt
homophone: route (in some pronunciations)
rhymes: -aʊt
ipa: /ɹaʊt/
ipa: [ɹʌʊt]
homophone: route (in some pronunciations)
rhymes: -aʊt
Forms: form: routs
Etymology: The noun is derived from Middle French route (“military defeat; retreat”), from rout, archaic past participle of Middle French, Old French rompre (“to break; to break up, disperse”) (modern French rompre (“to break, snap; to break up (with someone)”)), from Latin rumpere, the present active infinitive of rumpō (“to break, burst, rupture, tear; to force open; (figurative) to annul; to destroy; to interrupt”); see further at etymology 1.
The verb is derived from the noun.
Senses: examples: text: The rout of the enemy was complete.
text: The visiting football team was put to rout.
text: From Thrace they fly, call'd to the dire Alarms / Of warring Phlegyans, and Emphyrian Arms; / Invok'd by both, relentleſs they diſpoſe / To theſe, glad Conqueſt, murd'rous Rout to thoſe.
ref: 1718, Homer, translated by Alexander Pope, “Book XIII”, in The Iliad of Homer, volume IV, London: […] W[illiam] Bowyer, for Bernard Lintott […], →OCLC, page 21, lines 390–393:
text: His position had come to him—why? Perhaps because he was never ill… He had served three terms of three years out there… Because triumphant health in the general rout of constitutions is a kind of power in itself.
ref: 1899 February, Joseph Conrad, “The Heart of Darkness”, in Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine, volume CLXV, number M, New York, N.Y.: The Leonard Scott Publishing Company, […], →OCLC, part I, page 211:
text: It was only the outstanding [Petr] Cech that stood between Arsenal and a second-half rout as Spurs simply swamped their opponents after the break with a formidable display of power, pace and sheer intensity.
ref: 2018 February 10, Phil McNulty, “Tottenham Hotspur 1 – 0 Arsenal”, in BBC Sport, archived from the original on 07 Nov 2020:
glosses: The act of completely defeating an army or other enemy force, causing it to retreat in a disorganized manner; (by extension) in politics, sport, etc.: a convincing defeat; a thrashing, a trouncing.
examples: text: [T]hy Army preſently, / (As if they could not ſtand, when thou wert downe) / Diſperſt in rout, betooke them all to flie: [...]
ref: 1609, Samuel Daniel, “The Fovrth Booke”, in The Civile Wares betweene the Howses of Lancaster and Yorke […], London: […] [Humphrey Lownes for] Simon Watersonne, →OCLC, stanza 56, page 101:
text: And the authorities in Moscow presented the rout in the northeast as a planned “regrouping.”
ref: 2022 September 11, Andrew E. Kramer, Andrew Higgins, “Ukraine Routs Russian Forces in Northeast, Forcing a Retreat”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:
text: Small contingents of Russian troops across the country have tried to train the Syrian army into a more professional force (the rout in Aleppo suggests those efforts have gone poorly).
ref: 2024 December 4, “Syria’s Bashar al-Assad is in mortal danger”, in The Economist, →ISSN:
topics: government
military
politics
war
glosses: The retreat of an enemy force, etc., in this manner; also (archaic, rare), the army, enemy force, etc., so retreating.