rout

Concise Oxford English Dictionary © 2008 Oxford University Press:
rout1 /raʊt/

▶noun

• 1 a disorderly retreat of defeated troops.

  ■ a decisive defeat.

• 2 Law, dated an assembly of people who have made a move towards committing an illegal act which would constitute an offence of riot.

• 3 archaic a disorderly crowd of people.

▶verb defeat utterly and force to retreat.

– phrases
put to rout put to flight; defeat utterly.

– origin ME: ult. based on L. rupt-, rumpere ‘break’, via obs. Fr. route and Anglo-Norman Fr. rute.

Concise Oxford English Dictionary © 2008 Oxford University Press:
rout2 /raʊt/

▶verb

• 1 cut a groove in (a surface).

• 2 another term for root2.

• 3 force to leave a place.

– origin C16: alt. of the verb root2.