Which comment is funny to me. @Jackmannii 's usage is the quintessential serious, not sarcastic usage for me.
IMO (without benefit of dictionary) to traipse is (idiomatically) to need to make a long and circuitous route with many stops to accomplish what you wish was a nearby one-stop event. e.g.
I’m going to have to traipse to 4 grocery stores in 3 zip codes to get all the ingredients for my special Halloween treats. Uggh. Why can’t my nearby FoodWorld carry all these things?
Did the sarcasm sort of double up, then? Originally meant a long slog, then was used sarcastically to refer to any sort of aimless walking, and then (to people of a certain generation, perhaps) the original meaning was forgotten and it seems sarcastic now?
I assumed for years that it meant “trip gaily along” because I first encountered the word in a Woody Allen humor piece that mentioned “traipsing through a field gathering violets.”
I always thought it was the first one (aimless and possibly whimsical). To me, the word always sounded like someone skipping through a field, or wandering aimlessly (but not slowly) between one point and another.
I’d never heard definition 2. To me, that suggests “trudge,” not “traipse.” Traipsing had more of a positive or “happy” vibe to me.
Honestly, I think the word is experiencing some linguistic drift, based on how many other people agree with some version of my definition than the “real” one.
I dunno; someone can traipse right in like they own the place, and that can be done over any distance.
Collins lists a secondary usage which involves short distances:
https://www.collinsdictionary.com/us/dictionary/english/traipse
- intransitive verb
If you talk about people traipsing somewhere, you mean that they are going there or moving around in a way that annoys someone or gets in their way.
[disapproval]
You will have to get used to a lot of people traipsing in and out of your home.
Pretty sure I’ve heard that usage, too. Doesn’t involve either aimlessness or weariness.
Hmm.. no.
Mostly i hear “waltz right in” in that context. But not traipse.
Different connotations I think.
When I read the word, only one usage popped into my head: children traipsing around the neighborhood. Nothing about that seemed weary or reluctant.
I wonder if it’s regional. Most of my childhood reading was written in the UK, which jibes with my understanding of “traipse”.
Fwiw, I’ve never associated the word with happiness, or aimlessness.
I agree with that one.
— for me, to schlepp is to carry something; not just yourself.
I wouldn’t use traipse for that. For me a person traipsing would either be sauntering or just walking in an ordinary fashion; not running around excitedly.
It wouldn’t have to be excitedly, but it wouldn’t be trudging. Perhaps Q.Q.Switcheroo has something when he mentioned Woody Allen and “traipsing through a field gathering violets.” That’s just the sort of imagery that comes to mind for me. You wouldn’t collect violets in a field without some degree of enthusiasm. Well, maybe you would if you’re Woody Allen…
Funnily the definition I found for traipse is a long or tiring walk and the definition of a trudge is a long and tiring walk. So a traipse doesn’t need to be long or tiring, but if it’s both, it’s a trudge.
I would also never use “traipse” to describe children happily moving about. I don’t traipse when i pick flowers, either. That’s so not in line with how i use the word.
Traipsing is between walking and trudging.
You wouldn’t collect violets in a field while running around, either; or at least I wouldn’t. You’d be walking around fairly slowly, looking for and selecting the next flower, and picking it carefully so as to not damage it.
I voted the first, but that definition isn’t quite how I feel “traipse.” For me it doesn’t suggest whimsy. It does suggest some amount of aimlessness or wandering, or at least not a defined path. It also suggests a higher-than-normal amount of effort. It does not suggest what I’d call “reluctance,” though. Maybe an element of “weariness” works. So somewhere between the first two definitions, and I voted first because it’s slightly more shaded that way.
I think this is the closest to how I use it.
In my mind there’s a sense of deliberateness, so not aimlessly.
My personal image of ”traipsing” Includes a carefree attitude, a frolicsome pace, and no implication for or against purpose. While the dictionary definitions seem to imply some unpleasantness, the slang and phrase dictionaries agree with me. We already have wander, meander, roam, and others for the first sense, and trudge, slog, and maybe hike for the second.
OED says “tramp or trudge wearily,” but their examples do not really support this. The examples all seem more like “wander about without a specific purpose, over time.” Sure, you’d be tired afterwards, but not necessarily during.