Rout

rout
    n 1: a disorderly crowd of people [syn: {mob}, {rabble}, {rout}]
    2: an overwhelming defeat
    v 1: cause to flee; "rout out the fighters from their caves"
         [syn: {rout}, {rout out}, {expel}]
    2: dig with the snout; "the pig was rooting for truffles" [syn:
       {rout}, {root}, {rootle}]
    3: make a groove in [syn: {rout}, {gouge}]
    4: defeat disastrously [syn: {spread-eagle}, {spreadeagle},
       {rout}]
    

Rout \Rout\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. {Routed}; p. pr. & vb. n.
   {Routing}.]
   To break the ranks of, as troops, and put them to flight in
   disorder; to put to rout.
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         That party . . . that charged the Scots, so totally
         routed and defeated their whole army, that they fied.
                                                  --Clarendon.
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   Syn: To defeat; discomfit; overpower; overthrow.
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Rout \Rout\, n. [OF. route, LL. rupta, properly, a breaking, fr.
   L. ruptus, p. p. of rumpere to break. See {Rupture}, {reave},
   and cf. {Rote} repetition of forms, {Route}. In some senses
   this word has been confused with rout a bellowing, an
   uproar.] [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]." --Piers Plowman. "A great solemn route."
      --Chaucer.
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            And ever he rode the hinderest of the route.
                                                  --Chaucer.
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            A rout of people there assembled were. --Spenser.
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   2. A disorderly and tumultuous crowd; a mob; hence, the
      rabble; the herd of common people.
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            the endless routs of wretched thralls. --Spenser.
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            The ringleader and head of all this rout. --Shak.
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            Nor do I name of men the common rout. --Milton.
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   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.
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            thy army . . .
            Dispersed in rout, betook them all to fly. --Daniel.
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            To these giad conquest, murderous rout to those.
                                                  --pope.
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   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. --Wharton.
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   5. A fashionable assembly, or large evening party. "At routs
      and dances." --Landor.
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   {To put to rout}, to defeat and throw into confusion; to
      overthrow and put to flight.
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Rout \Rout\ (rout), v. i. [AS. hr[=u]tan.]
   To roar; to bellow; to snort; to snore loudly. [Obs. or
   Scot.] --Chaucer.
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Rout \Rout\, n.
   A bellowing; a shouting; noise; clamor; uproar; disturbance;
   tumult. --Shak.
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         This new book the whole world makes such a rout about.
                                                  --Sterne.
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         "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."               --Trench.
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Rout \Rout\, v. t. [A variant of root.]
   To scoop out with a gouge or other tool; to furrow.
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   {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.]
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Rout \Rout\, v. i.
   To search or root in the ground, as a swine. --Edwards.
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Rout \Rout\, v. i.
   To assemble in a crowd, whether orderly or disorderly; to
   collect in company. [obs.] --Bacon.
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         In all that land no Christian[s] durste route.
                                                  --Chaucer.
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ROUT, crim. law. A disturbance of the peace by persons assembled together 
with an intention to do a thing, which, if executed, would have made them 
rioters, and actually making a motion towards the execution of their 
purpose. 
     2. It generally agrees in all particulars with a riot, except only in 
this, that it may be a complete offence without the execution of the 
intended enterprise. Hawk. c. 65, s. 14; 1 Russ. on Cr. 253; 4 Bl. Com. 140; 
Vin. Abr. Riots, &c., A 2 Com. Dig. Forcible Entry, D 9. 
    

262 Moby Thesaurus words for "rout":
      a mass of, a world of, agitation, and bobtail, annihilate, army,
      attendance, attendant, bafflement, balk, batter, bawl, beat,
      beating, bellow, best, bevy, bluster, bobbery, body of retainers,
      boil, boiling, bring down, brouhaha, bunch, bustle, cakewalk,
      canaille, chase, chase out, check, checkmate, churn, clamor,
      clobber, cloud, cluster, clutter, cohort, cohue, collapse,
      common ruck, commotion, confound, confusion, conquer, conquest,
      conturbation, cortege, court, covey, cream, crowd, crush, debacle,
      defeasance, defeat, deluge, demolish, destroy, devastate, dig out,
      discomfit, discomfiture, discomposure, disorder, dispel, dispersal,
      disquiet, disquietude, disturbance, do away with, do in, dregs,
      drive, drive out, drub, drubbing, drum out, dust, ebullition,
      eliminate, embroilment, entourage, eradicate, excitement, expel,
      exterminate, ferment, fermentation, fever, feverishness, fidgets,
      flap, flatten, flight, flock, flocks, flood, flurry, fluster,
      flutteration, foil, follower, following, foment, force out,
      freeze out, frustration, fume, fuss, galaxy, hail, harry out, heap,
      hiding, hive, hoi polloi, horde, host, hubbub, hunt down, hunt out,
      hurly-burly, inquietude, jam, jitters, jumpiness, knock off,
      lambaste, large amount, lay waste, legion, lick, licking,
      liquidate, lots, maelstrom, make mincemeat of, malaise, mangle,
      many, mass, massacre, masses, masses of, mob, moil, muchness,
      multitude, murder, mutilate, nerviness, nervosity, nervousness,
      nest, numbers, obliterate, other half, overpower, overrun,
      overthrow, overwhelm, pack, panic, panoply, parasite, perturbation,
      plurality, polish off, press, proletariat, pulverize, push out,
      put down, put to flight, put to rout, quantities, quite a few,
      rabble, rabblement, rag, ragtag, ragtag and bobtail, ravage,
      rebuff, repulse, restlessness, retinue, retreat, reversal, reverse,
      ride roughshod over, riffraff, roar, roil, romp, rout out, row,
      ruck, ruin, run out, satellite, scatter, scores, seethe, seething,
      setback, shatter, shellac, shellacking, shoal, skunk, smash,
      smoke out, smother, spate, squash, stampede, stifle, stir, subdue,
      subjugate, subjugation, suite, suppress, swarm, swirl, tag, thrash,
      thrashing, throng, tidy sum, to-do, topple, train, trample, trash,
      trepidation, trepidity, trim, trounce, trouncing, tumult,
      tumultuation, turbidity, turbulence, turmoil, twitter, unease,
      unrest, upset, vanquish, vanquishment, walkaway, walkover, wallop,
      warming, whip, wipe out, worlds of, worst