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traveller, traveler|ˈtrævələ(r)| Forms: 4 travaillour, 4–6 travellour, -eiler, etc. (see travel v.); 6– traveller, 9– (chiefly U.S.) traveler. [agent-noun f. travel v.: see -er2, and cf. travailer.] One who or that which travels. 1. a. A person who is travelling or going from place to place, or along a road or path; one who is on a journey; a wayfarer; a passenger.
c1375Sc. Leg. Saints xxv. (Julian) 20 Sic hope in-to sancte Iulyane Þe traualouris þane had tane. c1475Rauf Coilȝear 82 Fyre, drink, nor meit, Nor nane vther eismentis for trauellouris behufe. 1552Abp. Hamilton Catech. (1884) 51 Certane travelars will nocht begin thair jornay on the satterday. a1591H. Smith Serm. (1637) 327 A traveller passeth from towne unto towne, untill he come to his Inne. 1715–20Pope Iliad xvi. 316 As wasps, provok'd by children in their play,..In swarms the guiltless traveller engage. 1828Webster, Traveler. 1843Miall in Nonconf. III. 429 The traveler, however, had a Scotch tongue in his head. 1886C. E. Pascoe London of To-day xx. (ed. 3) 203 The ‘Royal Forest Hotel’ offers many attractions as a traveller's rest. 1889‘L. Carroll’ Sylvie & Bruno Concl. (ed. 2) Pref. 10 As to such words as ‘traveler’, I hold the correct principle to be, to double the consonant when the accent falls on that syllable: otherwise, to leave it single. fig.1387Trevisa Higden (Rolls) I. 7 Among oþere noble trauaillours of þe þre pathes. 1631T. Powell Tom All Trades Title-p., An old Travailer in the sea of Experience. 1804Wordsw. ‘She was a phantom’ iii, A Traveller between life and death. b. = tramp n.1 4 (now dial.); a gypsy; spec. in Australia: see quot. 1896. Also, a travelling showman.
1763Gentl. Mag. Sept. 461/2 Mrs. Jewel..was robbed..in the middle of the day by some Irish travellers. 1825Jamieson, Traveller, a beggar. 1851Mayhew Lond. Labour I. 243/2 There are many individuals in lodging-houses who are not regular patterers or professional vagrants, being rather, as they term themselves, ‘travellers’ (or tramps). 1868M. Clarke in Australasian 5 Sept. 305/3, I remember at one station, situated on the main road for ‘travellers’, that the unhappy cook was ‘put on the fire’ by a crowd of these gentry. 1891‘F. W. Carew’ No. 747 ii. 18 A little commercial transaction—known among ‘travellers’ as ‘trucking’. 1896Australasian 8 Aug. 249/2 (Morris) These travellers lead an aimless life, wandering from station to station, hardly ever asking for and never hoping to get any work. 1904A. Griffiths 50 Y. Public Service xxiii. 347 These ‘travellers’ or ‘foreigners’ as they were styled locally, were responsible for a great part of the serious crime of the neighbourhood. 1906Gentl. Mag. July 17 In some parts of the Midlands the tramp is generally known as the traveller. 1945[see passage n. 1 e]. 1967New Scientist 7 Dec. 582/3 The question is whether or not gypsies (who call themselves Travellers) are members ‘of the Romany race’. 1971New Society 1 July 18/2 Scotland's 2,000-odd itinerant tinkers—or, as they prefer to be called ‘travellers’... Some claim descent from the roving Irish tinsmiths or Scottish outlaws, others from the true romany gypsies. c. transf. A sermon delivered by a preacher in various places on different occasions. colloq.
1892Pall Mall G. 10 May 6/2 This sermon..was what is known amongst students as a ‘traveller’. 1904J. Wells Life J. H. Wilson xxii. 205 His sermon on this subject was one of his ‘travellers’. 2. a. spec. One who travels abroad; one who journeys or has journeyed through foreign countries or strange places.
1556Robinson tr. More's Utop., P. Giles to Buslyde (1895) p. xcvi, The very famous and renowmed trauailer Vlysses. 1600Shakes. A.Y.L. ii. iv. 18 When I was at home I was in a better place, but Trauellers must be content. 1610― Temp. iii. iii. 26 Trauellers nere did lye, Though fooles at home condemne 'em. 1667Sprat Hist. R. Soc. 411 Cæsar..had Conquer'd more Countries than most Travailers have seen. 1718Lady M. W. Montagu Let. to C'tess Mar 10 Mar., We travellers are in very hard circumstances... If we tell anything new, we are laughed at as fabulous. 1834L. Ritchie Wand. by Seine 94 Some readers will think we are drawing our traveller's bow with a vengeance. 1885Encycl. Brit. XIX. 404/1 Marco Polo (c 1254–1324) the Venetian, the most famous perhaps of all travellers. 1890Chambers' Encycl. VI. 669/1 David Livingstone, missionary and traveller, was born at Blantyre..1813. 1913M. Baring Lost Diaries xvii. 177 The doctor..scoffed at the idea of the sea serpent, which, he said, was a travellers' tale. b. to play (also, slang, to tip) the traveller: ‘to tell wonderful stories, to romance’ (Grose); hence, with upon, to deceive, befool, impose upon: in allusion to the mendacious or incredible character ascribed to ‘traveller's tales’.
1739Bp. Herring in J. Duncombe's Lett. (1773) II. 133, I am a little afraid, if I should be particular in my description, you would think I am playing the traveller upon you; but indeed I will stick religiously to truth. 1762Smollett Sir L. Greaves vi, Aha! do'st thou tip me the traveller, my boy? 1796in Grose's Dict. Vulg. T. (ed. 3). 3. spec. (in full, commercial traveller: see commercial 6): An agent employed by a commercial firm to travel from place to place showing samples of goods and soliciting custom.
1790J. Wedgwood Let. 13 July (1965) 328 Such distinguished favours cannot but make a deep impression on my mind. Nor will they be forgotten by the travellers. 1800Hull Advertiser 19 July 2/4 That capital Inn..many years established as a Travellers' House. 1819Hermit in London II. 186 Common bag-men styled travellers of the house of Messrs. So-and-So. 1830N. S. Wheaton Jrnl. 497 At the Inn..I found a number of commercial travellers. 1851Mayhew Lond. Labour I. 381/2 Some tallymen who keep shops have ‘travellers’ in their employ, some of whom have salaries, while others receive a percentage upon all payments. 1894Times 22 Jan. 13/4 Carpet travellers are now all out on their journeys, but are not sending in as many orders as could be wished. 4. a. A horse, or other beast of burden or draught, a vehicle, etc., that travels or goes along (fast, well, etc.). Cf. travel v. 3 e. b. Applied to birds making a long flight, or migrating.
1660F. Brooke tr. Le Blanc's Trav. 26 Dalascian Asses..are good travellers,..they will go thirty miles a day with⁓out any wearinesse. 1874J. W. Long Amer. Wild-fowl i. 21 Frequently in spring continuous shooting may be had at ‘travellers’,..i.e., ducks making long flights, often migrating. 1889Pall Mall G. 21 Aug. 2/1 He stands 16 hands high, and looks every inch a traveller. 5. a. A piece of mechanism constructed to ‘travel’, run, or slide along a support; as a travelling crane, an overhead truck, a movable bridge bearing a crab for lifting and transporting heavy objects from one part to another of an engineering workshop or shed, a travelling or moving platform, etc.
1828A. Sherburne Mem. iii. 61 He and other officers contrived to haul the men ashore... He fixed a traveller on the rope, by which he first went ashore, so that he could not wash off. 1842Civil Eng. & Arch. Jrnl. V. 359/1 The ‘traveller’..was moved forward from the other end of the dam. 1866Cycl. Usef. Arts I. 2/2 Four pairs of balks.., where travellers are attached for holding the carcasses. 1896Allbutt's Syst. Med. I. 369 The current is then increased by sliding the traveller of the rheostat from its maximum to a lower value. 1898Engineering Mag. XVI. 80 A traveller, or portable platform,..is hoisted out, run across, and raised to the proper level, forming a level gangway..for the transit of passengers and goods from one platform to the other. b. Naut. An iron ring or thimble running freely on a rope, rod, spar; in quot. 1882, a rope on which such a ring slides; also, a rope or rod along which a yard may slide.
1762–9Falconer Shipwr. ii. 258 Some, travellers up the weather-back-stays send. 1790Naval Chron. XXIV. 50 The hauling rope of the traveller got foul. 1840R. H. Dana Bef. Mast Gloss., Traveller, an iron ring, fitted so as to slip up and down a rope. 1882Nares Seamanship (ed. 6) 135 In sending the royal yard down..a weather top-gallant backstay can be used for a traveller. 1883Kelly in Harper's Mag. Aug. 449/2 A jib,..hooked to a ring, called a traveller,..is hauled out to the bowsprit by a tackle. c. In ring-spinning, a metal ring or loop used to guide the yarn in winding it on the spindle.
1853Ure Dict. Arts II. 832 Messrs. Sharp,..of Manchester, exhibited a throstle spinning frame on the ‘ring and traveller’ principle. 1877Knight Dict. Mech. 1944/1 As the spindles revolve, the thread passing through the traveler revolves it rapidly, and the horizontal bar ascending and descending alternately winds the yarn regularly upon the spools. 1884W. S. B. McLaren Spinning (ed. 2) 167 The traveller..is to wind the yarn on to the bobbin and to affect the drag... By reducing the size of the traveller the drag can be made exceedingly slight. d. Theatr. The mechanism for flying fairies, angels, ghosts, etc. above the stage.
1859Sala Gaslight & D. ii. 21 You may see the wires or ‘travellers’, used by ‘flying fairies’. e. Angling. A tackle which permits the bait to travel or move down the swim. Also attrib.
1867F. Francis Angling i. (1880) 49 This kind of fishing, which is called ‘traveller’ fishing (the float being the traveller). Ibid. iv. (1883) 42 Barbel are taken with the traveller in the Nottingham fashion. f. A craftsman's tool used for measuring circumferences, esp. of wheels (see quots.).
1879–81G. F. Jackson Shropshire Word-Bk. 454 Trindle, a disc used by blacksmiths for measuring the circumference of wheels—a ‘traveller’. 1923G. Sturt Wheelwright's Shop xxiii. 122 The new tyre..had to be measured, as also had the wheel it was meant for. Blacksmiths kept a special implement for this purpose—a ‘traveller’ or ‘tyre-runner’. The traveller was a thin circular disk of iron, six or seven inches across, which the smith would hold out, waist-high, at right angles to himself, and run round wheel and tyre in turn. 1969G. E. Evans Farm & Village xiv. 148, I cut the band to the exact circumference of the stone. I find this with a device I made... It's called a traveller... It's a metal wheel. I roll this round the stone and count the revolutions... (This device works on the same principle as the measuring wheel used by the old road surveyors—a trundle wheel or way-wiser.) 1976National Observer (U.S.) 10 July 9/1 ‘This here is called a traveler,’ he says..displaying a round, flat device used to measure the perimeter of a wagon wheel... ‘You won't find too many of them left.’ 6. A suitcase, trunk, or travelling bag. Chiefly U.S.
1895Montgomery Ward Catal. Spring & Summer 564/3 Canvas Traveler... Large square box made of the best basswood, covered with extra heavy duck... A most handsome ladies' trunk. 1965Harper's Bazaar Dec. 89/1 Cosmetic traveller lined with silk for girls who are on the go all day. 1983Country Life 1 Dec. 1677 (Advt.), Travel-bag—this great, waterproof traveller holds three leakproof bottles. 7. attrib. and Comb., as traveller fishing, traveller float (see 5 e), traveller monk, traveller vocation; traveller-like adj.
1832J. P. Kennedy Swallow B. ix, I have not been idle in my traveller-vocation. 1847W. Cory Lett. & Jrnls. (1897) 47, I felt more lively and traveller-like than I had before. 1907T. C. Middleton Geog. Knowl. Time Discov. Amer. 6 Cosmas Indicopleustes—the traveler-monk of Egypt [c 500–547]. b. Combinations with traveller's: traveller's cheque orig. U.S., a cheque for one of several specified amounts of money, which can be cashed at a bank in most countries, or used in payment for goods, on the holder's endorsement against his original signature; also written travellers(') cheque; traveller's joy, a name (given by Gerarde) for the wild shrub Clematis Vitalba, from its trailing over and adorning hedges by the wayside; traveller's palm, traveller's tree, names for certain trees which yield water or sap sought after by travellers to allay thirst, as Ravenala madagascariensis (Urania speciosa), N.O. Musaceæ, a palm-like tree of Madagascar whose hollow leaf-sheaths contain a store of water.
1891(title no. 24775 in Library of Congress copyright registration bk.) American Express Company, *Travelers Cheque. Ten Dollars. 1894N.Y. Tribune 11 July 5/2 The American Express Company's travellers' checks are of great assistance to tourists abroad. 1907M. Rollins Money & Investments 218 Express companies have made a speciality of issuing ‘travellers' cheques’. 1922F. Scott Fitzgerald Beautiful & Damned ii. i. 150 On his dressing-table were spread a number of articles..their tickets to California, the book of traveller's checks. 1957D. du Maurier Scapegoat iii. 32 Twenty-five pounds of travellers' cheques still uncashed. 1969Times 15 Nov. 7/7 The counterfeiting of travellers cheques. 1981‘E. Lathen’ Going for Gold iii. 29, I assume these foreign traveler's checks work like American Express?
1597Gerarde Herbal ii. cccxi. 739 Decking and adorning waies and hedges, where people trauell, and thereupon I haue named it the *Traueilers Ioie. 1678Phillips (ed. 4), Travailours-joy, a sort of Herb called in Latin Clematis. 1776Withering Brit. Plants (1796) II. 500 Traveller's-joy. Great Wild Climber. Virgin's Bower. Honesty. Hedges and shady places, in calcareous soil.
1885A. Brassey The Trades 177 We also saw [in Venezuela] many specimens of the *travellers' palm, each leaf of which..yields, when cut by the thirsty traveller, from half a pint to a pint of water.
1857Gosse Omphalos vii. 148 One of the stateliest of plants,—the *Traveller's Tree (Urania speciosa). 1883Encycl. Brit. XV. 170/1 The traveller's-tree (Urania speciosa), with its graceful crown of plantain-like leaves..supplying a quantity of pure cool water. Hence ˈtravelleress (rare), a female traveller; travellership rare, in various nonce usages.
1820Keble in Coleridge Mem. (1869) I. 99 A little sickliness now and then..on the part of some of my fellow-travelleresses. 1886Sat. Rev. 21 Aug. 253/1 A much more common figure is the merely wrong-headed and cantankerous traveller—and particularly travelleress. 1920Joyce Let. 20 Aug. (1966) iii. 17 Giorgio has been offered a position here in an American Trust Agency which would develop into a secretaryship and travellership for same. 1961Times 24 June 9/6 We left early..accompanied in somewhat distant travellership by an austerely demeanoured delegation from Communist China. |