Question

“I’ll give him a trail to follow,” muttered Rainsford, and he struck off from the rude path he had been following into the trackless wilderness. The word rude has several different meanings. Which one is being used in the previous passage?

Answer 1

I think it means like hes walking off of the bad path or maybe he was being slightly rude when he said this statment

Answer 2

The word rude has several meanings depending on its context, in this passage the writer is taking a hard, difficult and rough path to walk for many unpleasant situations. Therefore rude in this passage means hard or rough. Here it says that he stopped walking on that rough and dangerous path to take that one option that was being given to him.