roadwayn.
/ˈrəʊdweɪ/, U.S. /ˈroʊdˌweɪ/ 1.
a. A way used as a road; a way that is a road (road n. 4a).Formerly spec. †a main or principal road, a highway, originally perhaps with sense ‘a riding-way’ (obsolete); now usually passing into or coloured by sense 2.
ΘΚΠ
society > travel > means of travel > route or way > way, path, or track > road > [noun]
road1580
roadway1600
tread-waya1636
via1673
open road1764
roadie1768
audax1937
1600 J. Pory tr. J. Leo Africanus Geogr. Hist. Afr. viii. 323 Through this citie lie two maine roade-waies.
1621 R. Burton Anat. Melancholy Democritus to Rdr. 53 Imploying them at home about some publike buildings, as bridges, rode waies, for which those Romans were famous in this Iland.
1675 J. Ogilby (title) Itinerarium Angliæ: or, a Book of Roads, wherein are contain'd the principal Road-Ways of..England and..Wales.
1701 in Early Rec. Town of Providence (Rhode Island) (1903) XVII. 272 There must of nesesety be a Roade way layd out from ye Towne of Providence so Westward to Woodstock Killingsworth..and other places.
1753 ‘Philologus’ Inspector Inspected 6 She perceived two Men hurrying her along a large Road-way, and that her petticoats were dirtied.
1830 J. G. Strutt Sylva Brit. (rev. ed.) 38 In the year 1724 a road-way was cut through its venerable trunk.
1840 Railw. Times 25 Jan. To render the roadway to the station as convenient to the public as possible.
1880 R. Jefferies Greene Ferne Farm 75 The roadway stopped abruptly.
1978 ‘A. York’ Tallant for Disaster ii. 28 The burnt earth roadway..led to the sugar plantation.
1991 A. Karpan & R. Karpan Heart of Canada's Old Northwest 49 You enter Cut Knife along a roadway framed with tall aspen trees.
b. figurative and in figurative context.
ΘΚΠ
the world > movement > motion in a certain direction > [noun] > course or direction of movement
runeeOE
runningOE
pathOE
wayOE
tracea1300
coursec1380
coursec1380
racec1390
recourse?c1425
situation1517
journey?a1560
track1565
roadway1600
career?1614
direction1665
by-run1674
sensea1679
meith1726
heading1841
1600 W. Shakespeare Henry IV, Pt. 2 ii. ii. 50 Neuer a mans thought in the world, keepes the rode way better then thine. View more context for this quotation
a1633 Visct. Falkland Hist. Edward II (1680) 29 If Vertue be the Road-way to Perfection.
1663 W. Charleton Chorea Gigantum 28 In the road-way of every mans observation.
?1775 Fortune-hunter v. 83 Some strove for Glory, some for Interest strove, And miss'd the Roadway to his Seat above.
1888 H. H. Bancroft Calif. Pastoral vi. 186 The sky above offers the shortest open roadway to heaven.
1924 Stone Cutters' Jrnl. Oct. 27 If the roadway to the fulfillment of the rights of man in industry is constantly and perpetually blocked, there will then rise [etc.].
2001 N.Y. Times 4 Mar. 14 It'll be like having a roadway to paradise.
c. In extended use: applied to way or course over the sea, etc.
ΘΚΠ
society > travel > travel by water > directing or managing a ship > [noun] > sailing route
seawaya1000
fairwayc1474
navigationa1544
trade way1589
roadwaya1608
ocean lane1864
sea-lane1878
sea-road1893
a1608 F. Vere Comm. (1657) 54 A great ship was discovered on the road-way from the Indies.
1656 Earl of Monmouth tr. T. Boccalini Ragguagli di Parnasso ii. xxiii. 257 Pilats..had made road-waies all over it [sc. the ocean].
1872 J. Harrison Locomotive Engine (rev. ed.) 66 Its [sc. the boundless ocean's] roadway..was furnished by nature's lavish hand.
1910 S. D. Woods Lights & Shadows of Life on Pacific Coast 24 She rolled and tossed and bounded, her throbbing engines driving her steadily..past the headlands..into the open roadway of the sea.
2004 Cairns (Austral.) Post (Nexis) 2 Nov. 15 The river was a roadway to the sea for Chinese junks, their sails a regular sight.
2. The main or central portion of a road; the part of a road intended for vehicles, in contrast to the edges, pavement or sidewalk, or verge.
ΘΚΠ
society > travel > means of travel > route or way > way, path, or track > road > parts of road > [noun] > part where vehicles run
road1720
coach-way1735
carriageway1739
roadway1750
roading1836
1750 W. Ellis Mod. Husbandman IV. iv. 45 Mould got from under hedges, or the sullage of bottoms in the road-way.., are what the Middlesex farmer chiefly makes use of [as fertilizer].
1807 G. Crabbe Parish Reg. i, in Poems 41 Between the road-way and the walls.
1865 C. Dickens Our Mutual Friend II. iii. x. 88 Making unsteady sallies into the roadway, and as often staggering back again.
1885 Law Times Rep. 53 65/2 The company were to repair the roadway for two years.
1926 Mod. Lang. Notes 41 127 A legal highway of 60 feet in width would have a roadway proper of perhaps 30 feet,..and a berm on each side of 15 feet.
1937 Times 25 Jan. 8/2 In many streets like Oxford Street..the jaywalker wanders complacently in the very middle of the roadway.
1976 Dumfries & Galloway Standard 25 Dec. 5/2 His Ford Cortina car skidded on the frozen snow and left the roadway.
2004 High Country News 30 Aug. 17/1 Concrete..barriers..keep large animals, such as bighorn sheep and deer, off the roadway.
3.
a. The part of a bridge used by traffic.
ΘΚΠ
society > travel > means of travel > route or way > other means of passage or access > [noun] > bridge > parts of
pierlOE
bridge foota1450
heada1450
staddling1461
foota1500
bridge end1515
jowel1516
causey1523
starling?c1684
rib1735
spur1736
icebreaker1744
jetty1772
cutwater1776
roadway1798
sleeper1823
water-breaker1823
centrya1834
stem1835
suspension-tower1842
cantilever1850
semi-beam1850
pylon1851
half-chess1853
span1862
sway-bracing1864
needle-beam1867
ice apron1871
newel1882
flood-arch1891
needle girder1898
sway-brace1909
trough flooring1911
1798 Gentleman's Mag. 68 Suppl. 1141/1 Bridgewater Bridge..consists of one arch..; the road way is four feet wide in the clear.
1801 Monthly Mag. July 480/2 To increase the width of the bridge..to accomodate the road-way.
1834 Penny Cycl. II. 261/1 We have not only the arch itself to consider, but..the roadway or building thereon constructed.
1943 Triumphs of Engin. 127/1 The deck of the bridge has two levels, the upper one taking a roadway with ample room for six lanes of traffic.
2005 K. Ascher The Works: Anat. of City i. iii. 47 (caption) Vertical lift bridges are movable bridges with roadways that can be raised in an elevatorlike fashion.
b. The way, line, or bed of a railroad on which the track is laid; (also) the track itself.
ΘΚΠ
society > travel > rail travel > railway system or organization > [noun] > track > permanent way
roadway1813
superstructure1830
permanent way1838
1813 ‘T. Martin’ Circle Mech. Arts 315/1 It will be necessary so to conduct the line..to cut into the hill at each side, and the cutting from the latter will be useful in raising the road-way of the former.
1827 G. Stephenson Let. 8 May in G. Stephenson Engineer & Lett. (1973) i. 79 The expence of the walls.., together with the long slope forming a Roadway, will amount to nearly as much money as a Bridge.
1861 Times 22 Aug. 6 The severity of the winter, which damaged their rolling stocks and seriously injured their roadways.
1940 Quiz on Railroads & Railroading (Assoc. Amer. Railroads) Quest. 13 When the right-of-way of a railroad is cut through a hill, knoll or slope to provide a roadway, the excavation is called a cut.
2001 Topeka (Kansas) Capital-Jrnl. (Nexis) 6 July a4 What's wrong with taking a hard look at a commuter train where the roadway and the track already are in place.
4. Mining. A more or less horizontal passageway excavated in a mine; = road n. 4c.
ΘΚΠ
society > occupation and work > workplace > places where raw materials are extracted > mine > [noun] > passage > horizontal > types of
level1721
roadway1832
side drift1837
narrow1850
entry1854
rise heading1872
cross-head1877
sump drift1880
gopher-drift1881
stone-heading1892
1807 Literary Panorama June 478 The passage to those coal mines is white-washed..; and under the sea it is so dry, as to become very disagreeable by the dust it accumulates, and to oblige the conservators of these submarine roadways, to have recourse to frequent waterings.]
1832 Taylor's Mine (ed. 4) 123 The colliers were carrying a new adit, or roadway; and meeting with a stratum of rock, they bored through it.
1876 Proc. Royal Soc. 24 367 Fine dry coal-dust, such as that which is to be found on the roadways in dry coal-mines.
1942 Trans. Inst. Mining Engineers 102 42 The basic principle that the maximum area of seam should be won with the minimum of roadway consistent with roadway costs.
1994 Guardian 27 July i. 2/7 British Coal yesterday announced a major rock fall in a roof-bolted roadway at Asfordby colliery in Leicestershire.
Compounds
General attributive, as roadway inn, roadway design, roadway system, etc.
ΚΠ
1632 W. Lithgow Totall Disc. Trav. x. 495 I found..in diuerse Rode-way Innes..good Cheare, Hospitality, and Seruiceable attendance.
1800 J. Cottle Alfred 192 When passing through the towns and villages..To see the aged by the road-way side.
1844 Proc. Inst. Civil Engineers 3 99 The main piles..for supporting the roadway girders are of Memel timber.
1877 J. C. Geikie Life & Words Christ I. ii. 18 It looks like home to see..vervain,..road-way nettles, and thistles.
1916 Nature Sept. 4/2 A welcome addition to the reference library of every engineer engaged on roadway design, construction, and maintenance.
1970 Fremdsprachen 14 43 Thus, the combination of concrete slab and steel plate acts as..a reinforced concrete roadway slab.
1992 Public Wks. Jan. 34/2 This traffic activity would have sorely taxed the access and roadway system of Winthrop.
2007 Constr. Digest (Nexis) 8 Oct. 6 Heavy truck traffic, aging pavement and drainage problems forced it [sc. the local authority] to repair the roadway surface.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, June 2010; most recently modified version published online June 2022).
<
n.1600