gad1 (gad)

t.; pret. and pp. gadded, ppr. gadding. [ On the shores stoode closely together great numbers of Brytaines, and among them wommen gadding vppe and downe frantickly in mourning weedes, theyr hayre hanging about their eares, and shaking fire bran des. Stow , Chron., The Romans, an. 62. A fierce, loud buzzing breeze, their stings draw blood, And drive the cattle gadding through the wood. Dryden, tr. of Virgil's Georgics, iii. 2. To ramble about idly, from trivial curiosity or for go ip. Give the water no pa age; neither a wicked woman liberty to gad abroad. Ecclus. xxv. 25. Envy is a gadding pa ion, and walketh the streets, and doth not keep home. Bacon , Envy (ed. 1887). The student and lover of nature has this advantage of people who gad up and down the world, seeking some novelty or excitement: he has only to stay at home and see the proce ion pa . The Century, XXV. 672.