| 释义 |
highway|ˈhaɪˌweɪ|
Forms: see high a. and way.
[f. high a. 7, 19 + way. In OE. a true compound; but in 15–17th c. often two words. Often antithetic to by-way.]
1. a. A public road open to all passengers, a high road; esp. a main or principal road forming the direct or ordinary route between one town or city and another, as distinguished from a local, branch, or cross road, leading to smaller places off the main road, or connecting two main roads. the king's highway: see quot. 1895.
859in Earle Land Chart. 130 Circumcincta ab oriente cyniges heiweᵹ a meritie stret to scufeling forde. c1200Trin. Coll. Hom. 131 He nolde noht turnen ut of þe heȝeweie. c1325Poems times Edw. II (Percy Soc.) lvii, Thei goth out of the hy-way. c1400Three Kings Cologne (1886) 55 There was also bisyde þis hille a hiȝe-weye, and to þis hiȝeweye were .iij. weyes metyng to-gydir. 1450–1530Myrr. our Ladye 140 There ys a dyfference bytwyxte an hyghe waye and a bypathe, for the hyghe waye ys large and commune to all. 1604F. Herring Modest Def. 22 To make the Point as plaine as the Kings high-way. 1662Vestry Bks. (Surtees) 109 Chosen Overseers for the hy wayes for this present yeare. 1796Morse Amer. Geog. I. 452 The state [Connecticut] is chequered with innumerable roads or high ways crossing each other in every direction. 1813Examiner 26 Apr. 260/1 The Coroner's Jury brought in a verdict of self-murder, and the poor creature's body was barbarously mangled by a stake, and buried in the highway. 1851Helps Comp. Solit. i. (1874) 5 To make a road for himself..instead of using the King's highway. 1895Pollock & Maitland Hist. Eng. Law I. 22 The two phrases [‘the king's peace’ and ‘the king's highway’] are, indeed, intimately connected; they come from the time when the king's protection was not universal but particular, when the king's peace was not for all men or all places, and the king's highway was in a special manner protected by it.
b. to take (to) the highway, to become a highwayman, footpad, etc.
1722De Foe Col. Jack (1840) 71 We will take the highway like gentlemen. [1817J. Evans Excurs. Windsor 31 Embarrassment..that had induced him to so rash a step as the highway.]
c. In allusion to Matt. xxii. 9, 10, Luke xiv. 23.
1843H. Bonar Hymn, ‘Go labour on’ vii, Go forth into the world's highway, Compel the wanderer to come in. 1898Daily News 6 Oct. 6/7 The South London officials of the Salvation Army have..been..gathering together of late from the highways and by-paths of Lambeth those who..are entitled to be ranked as ‘Hooligans’. 1908Westm. Gaz. 27 Jan. 1/3 It is highways and hedges work, and we shall need van for van and lecturer for lecturer. 1948A. J. Toynbee Civilization on Trial vi. 111 The United States—who had previously not only welcomed European immigrants but whose employers of labour had sought them in the highways and hedges of Europe and compelled them to come in.
2. transf.
a. The ordinary or main route, or line of communication followed, by land or water.
c1400Mandeville (Roxb.) xv. 70 In þe desertes of Araby by þe hie way toward Egipte. 1684Roxb. Ball. (1885) V. 464 From Westminster-Hall to the Temple each day The River of Thames 'twas made a High-way. 1837W. Irving Capt. Bonneville I. 79 The Platte has become a highway for the fur traders. 1868G. Duff Pol. Surv. 220 The great sea on the west, the natural highway of commerce.
b. Any track well-beaten or regularly traversed by animals or things.
1579Tomson Calvins Serm. Tim. 253/2 Poore ignorant men runne thus like Cranes, and..goe the beastes high way, (as the prouerbe is). 1622T. Scott Belg. Pismire 17 You may obserue the pathes and high-wayes betwixt one nest and another, is track't and beaten plaine with their little feet. 1855Bain Senses & Int. iii. i. §28 The Concurrence of Sensations in one common stream of consciousness,—in the same cerebral highway. 1866B. Taylor Poems, Passing the Sirens 179 But mark the burning highway of the sun.
c. Computers. (See quot. 1962.)
1949D. R. Hartree Calculating Instruments & Machines (1950) viii. 107 A number of source-gates..on the right, and a number of destination-gates on the left, are connected by a single bus labelled ‘Highway’. In this bus there is a further gate, labelled ‘transfer gate’, which exercises the main control over transfer of words between the various sources and destinations. Ibid. 108 An instruction..opens the corresponding S-gate and D-gate through selecting circuits; then at the appropriate time the main transfer gate in the highway opens. 1962Gloss. Automatic Data Processing Terms (B.S.I.) 87 Highway, a major path along which signals travel from one of several sources to one of several destinations. 1964F. L. Westwater Electronic Computers i. 7 The number..can either be allowed to pass on to one of the so-called ‘highways’ in the computer or it can be obliterated. Ibid. 9 Numbers are driven out on to the highways serially by admitting electronic pulses to the registers.
3. fig.
a. A course of conduct leading directly to some end or result.
1598F. Meres tr. Lewes' Sinner's Guide Title-p., Brought into the Highway of Euerlasting Happinesse. 1625Burges Pers. Tithes 36 This were the high way to become sonnes of Belial indeed. 1690Child Disc. Trade Pref. (1694) 25 Trades that we have lost, and are in the highway to lose. 1875Jowett Plato (ed. 2) V. 288 That state..I perceive to be on the highway to ruin.
b. The ordinary or direct course (of conduct, thought, speech, etc.).
a1637B. Jonson Discov., Otium Studiorum Wks. (Rtldg.) 748/2 He never forced his language, nor went out of the highway of speaking, but for some great necessity or apparent profit. 1871E. F. Burr Ad Fidem vi. 90 To march..in an orderly way, along the highways of thought.
4. attrib. and Comb.
a. as Highway Board, highway hedge, highway passage, highway side, highway theory;
b. frequenting or plying one's trade on the highway, as highway robber, highway stander, highway thief, highway woman;
c. used to run on the highway, as highway dog, highway nag, etc.;
d. Highway Code, in Britain, an official publication containing the ‘rules of the road’, esp. for motor vehicles; first published in 1931, it has appeared subsequently in revised editions; also transf.; highway rate, tax, one imposed for the maintenance of highways; highway robbery, (freq. in trivial use of something that is exorbitantly expensive).
1930Act 20 & 21 Geo. V c. 45 §1 The Minister shall..prepare a code (in this section referred to as the ‘*highway code’) comprising such directions as appear to him to be proper for the guidance of persons using roads. 1935Archit. Rev. LXXVIII. 110/3 The free issue of the Highway Code to all of his Majesty's lieges who have come (or are supposed to have come) to years of discretion is a portent. 1958Listener 20 Nov. 835/1 The importance of reading the Highway Code. 1959Daily Tel. 1 July 1/3 Highway Code revised for motorways. 1970‘A. Gilbert’ Death wears Mask x. 166 And then there's the Highway Code. 1972Listener 23 May 375/3 Here was a book that..had broken the Highway Code of conventional English culture.
1611Markham Countr. Content. i. i. (1668) 10 A couple of good *high-way dogs, that is to say, Hounds..that..will hunt as well upon a dry, hard high-way as upon the freshest mould.
1680Otway Caius Marius iii. iii, Some Beggar's rotten Rags..left dangling on a *Highway Hedge.
1622Mabbe tr. Aleman's Guzman d'Alf. ii. 75 He bestowed his blessing vpon mee, and with it a good *high-way-Nag.
1621Quarles Div. Poems, Esther, Making a *Highway-passage through the Main.
1840Hood Knt. & Dragon viii, He collected..*Highway-rates on the roads.
1690Lond. Gaz. No. 2607/2 Any *Highway Robbers, House-Breakers, or Murderers. 1904Kipling Traffics & Discov. 330 The other six hundred [acres] are nearly all let to folk who knew my folk..but this Turpin is a new man—and a highway robber.
1778J. Wedgwood Let. 19 Mar. (1965) 218 On Monday night last there was three *highway robberies between this place and Newcastle. 1853Mrs. Gaskell Cranford x. 181 She indeed inclined to the idea that, in some way, the French were connected with..the burglaries and highway robberies. 1886Lantern (New Orleans) 3 Nov. 2/3 Highway robbery is no name for it. 1920A. Huxley Limbo 122 The organized highway robbery of Red Cross collectors. 1941‘R. Crompton’ William does his Bit ii. 36 ‘I've heard people talk about highway robbery quite lately.’ ‘Yes, but they only mean people chargin' too much for meals,’ explained Ginger, ‘not the old sort.’ 1967J. B. Priestley It's Old Country ix. 107 Nothing on the wine list..under two-pound-ten. Highway robbery by candlelight.
1638Sir T. Herbert Trav. (ed. 2) 87 Unexpected onsets of the Coolies and *high-way roagues.
1669Worlidge Syst. Agric. (1681) 174 Any poor Cottager that lives by the *High-way-side.
1600Rowlands Lett. Humours Blood xxviii. 34 Three *high-way standers, haueing cros-lesse cursse Did greete my friend with, Sir giue vs your pursse.
1897Daily News 13 Sept. 7/5 The Colonial railway policy has been almost entirely dominated by what is called the *highway theory.
1618Bolton Florus ii. xvii. (1636) 146 From huntsman turning *highway theefe.
▸ [Replaces sense 2c in OED2.] Freq. more fully data highway in both senses below. a. Computing. A pathway or bus (bus n.2 2a) connecting different parts of a single computer system.
1949D. R. Hartree Calculating Instruments & Machines (1950) viii. 107 A number of source-gates..on the right, and a number of destination-gates on the left, are connected by a single bus labelled ‘Highway’. 1965Wireless World July 345/2 The ‘highway’ system makes it possible to connect over 100 separate peripheral devices to the computer. 1977Nature 28 Apr. 760/1 The microprocessor is an electronic device..enabling certain operations to be performed on input digital data, the transformed data then becoming available either on an output data highway, or in appropriate internal registers of the microprocessor. 1989J. Gatenby GCSE Computer Stud. vi. 94 Computer processing involves the transmission of electronic pulses around the computer... The routes on which the pulses travel in parallel streams are known as data buses or highways.
b. Computing and Telecomm. Also more fully information highway. A pathway between (rather than within) systems, such as one of those constituting a local or wide area network; esp. a major one providing high-speed communication.
This is more a figurative use of senses 1 and 2 than a technical sense.
19804th. Internat. Online Information Meeting 523 (heading) The information highways. 1981National Jrnl. 24 Oct. 1888 It is a synergism of existing communications media... The catalyst in this change is the computer, which is rapidly enabling these diverse information highways to mesh into one comprehensive interstate system. 1986Daily Tel. 21 Nov. 16 The construction of digital telecommunications ‘highways’, using hair-thin fibre optic cables capable of simultaneously carrying voice and data traffic..is opening up whole new communication frontiers. 2000Columbus (Ohio) Dispatch (Nexis) 13 Jan. c7 Internet2, the electronic highway that government and academic users built as a multilane bypass after the public Internet got too crowded. |