ROUT • DICTIONARY ONE.COM • Definition of Rout

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/raʊt/ Listen

noun

Rout n. A bellowing; a shouting; noise; clamor; uproar; disturbance; tumult. "This new book the whole world makes such a rout about." ""My child, it is not well," I said, "Among the graves to shout; To laugh and play among the dead, And make this noisy rout.""

Rout n. (Formerly spelled also route)

1.

A troop; a throng; a company; an assembly; especially, a traveling company or throng. (Obs.) "A route of ratones (rats)." "A great solemn route." "And ever he rode the hinderest of the route." "A rout of people there assembled were."

2.

A disorderly and tumultuous crowd; a mob; hence, the rabble; the herd of common people. "the endless routs of wretched thralls." "The ringleader and head of all this rout." "Nor do I name of men the common rout."

3.

The state of being disorganized and thrown into confusion; said especially of an army defeated, broken in pieces, and put to flight in disorder or panic; also, the act of defeating and breaking up an army; as, the rout of the enemy was complete. "thy army... Dispersed in rout, betook them all to fly." "To these giad conquest, murderous rout to those."

4.

(Law) A disturbance of the peace by persons assembled together with intent to do a thing which, if executed, would make them rioters, and actually making a motion toward the executing thereof.

5.

A fashionable assembly, or large evening party. "At routs and dances."

To put to rout, to defeat and throw into confusion; to overthrow and put to flight.

verb

Rout v. t. To scoop out with a gouge or other tool; to furrow.

To rout out

(a)

To turn up to view, as if by rooting; to discover; to find.

(b)

To turn out by force or compulsion; as, to rout people out of bed. (Colloq.)

Rout v. t. (past & past part. routed; pres. part. routing) To break the ranks of, as troops, and put them to flight in disorder; to put to rout. "That party... that charged the Scots, so totally routed and defeated their whole army, that they fied."

Synonyms: To defeat; discomfit; overpower; overthrow.

Rout v. i. To roar; to bellow; to snort; to snore loudly. (Obs. or Scot.)

Rout v. i. To search or root in the ground, as a swine.

Rout v. i. To assemble in a crowd, whether orderly or disorderly; to collect in company. (obs.) "In all that land no Christian(s) durste route."

See images of 'Rout'

Etymology of 'Rout'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Rout" Quotes from Famous Books

... toothless gums grinned appreciation of the jest as he tottered from the room to take a chair for a rout ...

— A Daughter of Raasay - A Tale of the '45 • William MacLeod Raine

... into that in which he stood; when suddenly the salmon trout was snatched from his hand, and flung so violently in his face, that he staggered back into the road: the factor had to pull sharply up to avoid driving over him. His rout rather than retreat was followed by a burst of insulting laughter, and at the same moment, out of the house rushed a large vile looking mongrel, with hair like an ill used doormat and an abbreviated nose, ...

— Malcolm • George MacDonald

... of his cavalry. Darius fled from the field, in both instances, at the very beginning of the battle, and made no real resistance. The greater the number of Persian soldiers, the more disorderly was the rout. The Macedonian soldiers fought retreating armies in headlong flight. The slaughter of the Persians was mere butchery. It was something like collecting a vast number of birds in a small space, and shooting them when collected in a corner, and dignifying the slaughter with a grand name—not ...

— Ancient States and Empires • John Lord

... who, like him, had long been endeavouring to undermine the authority which was the only safeguard to the morality of the school, felt themselves distinctly baffled. Mackworth had been put to utter rout by Bliss, and though he was almost bursting with dark spite, would not venture to do much; Jones had become a perfect joke through the whole school, and was constantly having white hen's feathers and goose-feathers enclosed to him in little envelopes until ...

— St. Winifred's - The World of School • Frederic W. Farrar

... Gyldenlove! Have you never had visions of an unknown power—a strong mysterious might, that binds together the destinies of mortals? When you dreamed of knightly jousts and joyous festivals—saw you never in your dreams a knight, who stood in the midst of the gayest rout, with a smile on his lips and with bitterness in his heart,—a knight that had once dreamed a dream as fair as yours, of a woman noble and stately, for whom he went ever seeking, ...

— Henrik Ibsen's Prose Dramas Vol III. • Henrik Ibsen

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