Merriam-Webster Collegiate Dictionary - rout

 I. noun  Etymology: Middle English ~e band, company of soldiers, crowd, from Anglo-French rute band, from Vulgar Latin *rupta, from Latin, feminine of ruptus, past participle of rumpere to break — more at reave  Date: 13th century  1. a crowd of people ; throng; specifically rabble 2b  2.  a. disturbance  b. archaic fuss  3. a fashionable gathering  II. intransitive verb  Etymology: Middle English rowten, from Old Norse rauta; akin to Old English reotan to weep, Latin rudere to roar  Date: 14th century dialect chiefly British to low loudly ; bellow — used of cattle  III. verb  Etymology: alteration of 3root  Date: circa 1564  intransitive verb  1. to poke around with the snout ; root pigs ~ing in the earth  2. to search haphazardly  transitive verb  1.  a. archaic to dig up with the snout  b. to gouge out or make a furrow in (as wood or metal)  2.  a. to force out as if by digging — usually used with out  b. to cause to emerge especially from bed  3. to come up with ; uncover scouts…~ing out new talent — Carrie Donovan  IV. noun  Etymology: Middle French ~e defeat, perhaps from mettre en ~e to set going, put into motion  Date: 1598  1. a state of wild confusion or disorderly retreat  2.  a. a disastrous defeat ; debacle  b. a precipitate flight  V. transitive verb  Date: circa 1600  1.  a. to disorganize completely ; demoralize  b. to put to precipitate flight  c. to defeat decisively or disastrously the discomfiture of seeing their party ~ed at the polls — A. N. Holcombe  2. to drive out ; dispel