Meaning

(countable, obsolete) A group of people; a crowd, a throng, a troop; in particular (archaic), a group of people accompanying or travelling with someone..

Definitions by Sense

1. (countable, obsolete) A group of people; a crowd, a throng, a troop; in particular (archaic), a group of people accompanying or travelling with someone.
2. (countable, archaic) 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.
3. (countable) A group of disorganized things.
4. (countable) 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.
5. (countable, dated) A fashionable assembly; a large evening party, a soirée.
6. (countable, archaic) A noisy disturbance; also, a disorderly argument or fight, a brawl; (uncountable) disturbance of the peace, commotion, tumult.
7. (countable, law, historical) 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.
8. (intransitive, obsolete) To assemble in a crowd, whether orderly or disorderly; to collect in company.

Example Sentences

A route of people there aſſembled were, / Of euery ſort and nation vnder skye, [...]

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.

'Is there anyone in this rout with authority to treat with me?' he asked.

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.

The Ring-leader and Head of all this Rout, / Haue practis'd dangerouſly againſt your State, / Dealing with Witches and with Coniurers, [...]

When Gospel-Trumpeter surrounded, / With long-ear'd rout to Battel sounded, / And Pulpit, Drum Ecclesiastick, / Was beat with fist, instead of a stick:

Nor do I name of men the common rout, / That wandring looſe about / Grow up and periſh, as the ſummer flie, [...]

[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.

Word Forms

• routs
• routing
• routed

Synonyms for rout

Related Words

When Should You Use Rout?

Use rout when its meaning, tone and grammar fit the full sentence. A synonym is not always a direct replacement.

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