freewayn.
/ˈfriːweɪ/, U.S. /ˈfriˌweɪ/ 1. Space or freedom (esp. for a vehicle) to pass without impediment; unrestricted access. Now rare.
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1890 Times 30 July 10 Situation, description, and distance of bridges, their width and freeway underneath at low, medium, and high states of water.
1903 E. Treeton Instigator 247 The separate door which had given, and still gave, freeway to the shop, stood open.
1912 Mansfield (Ohio) News 29 June The depth of the canal..will be twenty-five feet. This is enough to give freeway to the largest coastwise vessels now afloat.
2005 Evening Herald (Plymouth) (Nexis) 11 May 8 Surely if yellow lines are placed on one side of the road this will give freeway for buses, ambulances, dustcarts and heavy vehicles?
2. Originally and chiefly North American.
a. A pathway, route, etc., allowing unrestricted passage. Now rare, except in sense 2b.
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1913 Lethbridge (Alberta) Daily Herald 1 Nov. 8/5 There is a freeway right down the centre of the fuselage, permitting anyone to walk to the tail.
1924 Cedar Rapids (Iowa) Tribune 11 Apr. 7/5 A succession of pools, with a freeway of stones and boulders.
b. A thoroughfare to which the owners of abutting premises are denied the right of direct access, in order to protect the free movement of traffic. Now chiefly: an express highway, esp. one with controlled access; a toll-free highway.
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society > travel > means of travel > route or way > way, passage, or means of access to a place > [noun] > restricted
freeway1926
society > travel > means of travel > route or way > way, path, or track > road > [noun] > for wheeled vehicles > for fast motor traffic
speedway1903
motorway1906
superhighway1924
freeway1926
expresswayc1938
throughway1942
1926 San Antonio (Texas) Express 15 Oct. 1/1 Cars parked along the curb and rendering the freeway still narrower.
1936 E. M. Bassett Zoning (new ed.) 83 The increase of freeways..will help to solve the problem of too extensive business districts along main arteries.
1943 Life 22 Nov. 118/2 Almost everybody in Los Angeles has some pet plan for rebuilding large parts of the city after the war and opening up new ‘freeways’ (express auto highways).
1959 Guardian 18 Sept. 7/2 The freeways... Mile after mile of smooth, three or four-lane road, unbroken by intersection or traffic lights..minimum permissible speed about 40 m.p.h.
1973 Times 26 June V/1 The freeways are juggernauts. They have paved their way across cities and suburbs, through chewed-out mountain passes, across scenery and homes.
2006 ‘L. Burana’ Try i. 3 A warty growth of identical mini-mansions in a cul-de-sac that offered residents an unobstructed view of the freeway.
Compounds
C1. General attributive, as freeway exit, freeway ramp, etc.
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society > travel > means of travel > route or way > way, path, or track > road > [noun] > for wheeled vehicles > for fast motor traffic > exit from
exit1919
freeway exit1941
1941 Fresno (Calif.) Bee 22 Jan. a7/1 Unless present highway revenues are markedly increased, expansion of the freeway system is almost certain to lag behind the demand.
1962 Amer. Speech 37 267 A multilevel freeway interchange.
1970 J. Didion Play it as it Lays 5 A motel that would have been advantageously situated at a freeway exit.
1985 Los Angeles Times 30 July (San Diego County ed.) ii. 3/1 A..man died..after he drove his truck off a freeway exit and hit a tree.
2006 Vancouver Sun (Nexis) 31 July b2 One of the biggest challenges of the route is the freeway ramps at the Kensington overpass.
C2.
freeway space n. Dentistry the space between the occlusal surfaces of the upper and lower teeth when the jaw is in its resting position.
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1945 Amer. Jrnl. Orthodontics & Oral Surg. 31 299 The Positioner is a one-piece pliable rubber appliance that is made to completely fill the freeway space between the upper and lower dentures.
1971 Syracuse (N.Y.) Herald-Jrnl. 23 Jan. 5/8 The dad with the clicking dentures does not have enough freeway space.
2003 A. C. Cameron & R. P. Widmer Handbk. Pediatric Dentistry (ed. 2) ix. 315 Those appliances that displace the mandible within the freeway space are intended to stimulate muscle activity and are called ‘myodynamic’ appliances.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, June 2008; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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n.1890