Definition

1. Noun:

   • A long, vigorous walk, typically for pleasure or exercise: A journey made on foot, often in nature or over a distance.
   • A person who travels on foot from place to place, often with no permanent home or job; a vagrant: A person leading a wandering, often impoverished, life.
   • The sound of heavy, regular footsteps: The dull, thudding noise made by someone walking heavily.
   • A cargo ship that does not operate on a regular schedule or route: A merchant ship that takes cargo wherever it can be found.
   • (Derogatory, slang) A woman considered to be sexually promiscuous: An offensive term for a woman.

2. Verb:

   • To walk heavily or noisily: To tread with a firm, heavy step.
   • To walk for a long distance, especially wearily or with effort: To go on an extended walk, often through difficult terrain.
   • To travel aimlessly or as a vagrant: To wander from place to place without a fixed purpose or home.

Examples of Usage

• Noun:

  • We went for a ten-mile tramp through the hills. (We went for a ten-mile walk through the hills.)
  • He gave some money to the old tramp sleeping on the bench. (He gave some money to the old vagrant sleeping on the bench.)
  • The steady tramp of soldiers' boots echoed in the street. (The steady sound of soldiers' boots echoed in the street.)
  • The cargo was transported by a tramp steamer. (The cargo was transported by an unscheduled cargo ship.)

• Verb:

  • The children tramped up the stairs in their muddy boots. (The children walked noisily up the stairs in their muddy boots.)
  • We spent the day tramping across the moors. (We spent the day walking across the moors.)
  • After losing his job, he tramped from town to town looking for work. (After losing his job, he wandered from town to town looking for work.)

Advanced Usage

• "to tramp down": to press or flatten something by walking on it.
  • The grass had been tramped down by the crowd. (The grass had been flattened by the crowd.)

Variants and Related Words

• Trampler (noun): A person or thing that tramps or tramples.
• Tramping (noun/gerund): The activity or action of walking long distances, especially as a pastime or in a rugged area.

Synonyms

• Noun (walk): hike, trek, ramble.
• Noun (vagrant): vagabond, drifter, hobo, bum.
• Verb (walk heavily): stomp, trudge, plod, clump.
• Verb (walk long distance): hike, trek, march.

Related Phrasal Verbs

• Tramp about/around: To walk around an area, often for a long time or without a clear goal.
  • We spent the afternoon tramping around the old part of the city. (We spent the afternoon walking around the old part of the city.)

Related Idioms

• On the tramp: Living as a vagrant; traveling from place to place.
  • He's been on the tramp for years, never staying in one place. (He's been living as a vagrant for years, never staying in one place.)

Noun

1. a long walk usually for exercise or pleasure
   • she enjoys a hike in her spare time
2. a commercial steamer for hire; one having no regular schedule
3. a heavy footfall
   • the tramp of military boots
4. a foot traveler; someone who goes on an extended walk (for pleasure)
5. a person who engages freely in promiscuous sex
6. a disreputable vagrant
   • a homeless tramp
   • he tried to help the really down-and-out bums

Verb

1. move about aimlessly or without any destination, often in search of food or employment
   • The gypsies roamed the woods
   • roving vagabonds
   • the wandering Jew
   • The cattle roam across the prairie
   • the laborers drift from one town to the next
   • They rolled from town to town
2. cross on foot
   • We had to tramp the creeks
3. walk heavily and firmly, as when weary, or through mud
   • Mules plodded in a circle around a grindstone
4. travel on foot, especially on a walking expedition
   • We went tramping about the state of Colorado