ambuler

A very rare, almost never-used-standalone verb meaning simply "to walk about" or "to wander" — its real modern life is entirely inside derived words: ambulant (traveling, itinerant), ambulance, déambuler (to stroll). The bare verb ambuler itself is essentially obsolete.

• Le vieux texte décrit des marchands qui ambulent de ville en ville. — The old text describes merchants who wander from town to town.
• Ambuler sans but précis était, pour lui, une forme de méditation. — Wandering with no particular aim was, for him, a form of meditation.
• Les moines ambulaient de monastère en monastère au Moyen Âge. — Monks wandered from monastery to monastery in the Middle Ages.

Learners should use déambuler (to stroll/wander) for this idea in real modern French — ambuler on its own will read as archaic or invented to a native speaker.

Often confused with déambuler.