v. Obs. exc. dial. [? Formed after stroll and roam.] intr. To walk with long strides. Also to wander about idly.
1796. Mme. D’Arblay, Camilla, I. 174. A young Ensign … stroamed into the ball-room, with the most visible marks of his unfitness for appearing in it. Ibid., II. 195. He … stroamed up and down the room, biting his knuckles.
1817. Mar. Edgeworth, Ormond, xiii. T. & N. 1848, IX. 330. One morning our young hero rose early,… and he walked out, or, more properly, he rambled, or he strolled, or stroamed out.
a. 1825. Forby, Voc. E. Anglia, Strome, to walk with long strides.
1840. Spurdens, Suppl. to Forby, s.v., To ‘stroam about’: to wander idly without an object.
1878. S. H. Miller & Skertchly, Fenland, iii. 89. In Cambridgeshire we find the words—cloof, the hoof,… stroming, taking long strides.
transf. 1909. A. H. Patterson, Man & Nat. Tidal Waters, i. 21. What can lick a Norfolk wherry either for lines or the way she lays afore the wind stroming along.
