tour
/tʊə
/noun
1A journey for pleasure in which several different places are visited: a motoring tour of Scotland...
- As of yesterday, 72 groups totaling 1,024 Chinese nationals have visited Taiwan for sightseeing tours.
- And that is why boat rides are an important part of the sight-seeing tours offered by many tour operators here.
- He estimates the vehicle has gone about a million miles on nine tours and three different motors.
Synonyms
excursion, journey, expedition, trip, jaunt, outing, day trip, junket, voyage, trek, safari
rare peregrination
1.1A short trip to or through a place in order to view or inspect something: a tour of the White House...
- Eventually curiosity got the better of her and she hopped out for a very short tour of inspection, only to hasten back inside, leaving nothing but a few paw prints in the falling snow.
- That venture, along with limited guided tours and day trips for schoolchildren, proved hugely popular and 2,500 people have visited the centre per week.
- After a short tour of the ruins of the Cistercian Abbey, founded in 1132, he saw one of Europe's oldest surviving monastic mills.
Synonyms
visit, inspection, guided tour, walk round, survey, walkabout, ramble
2A journey made by performers or a sports team, in which they perform or play in several different places: Ireland’s eight-match tour of New Zealand she joined the Royal Shakespeare Company on tour...
- This is the standard defence often used in trying to excuse otherwise often outrageous behaviour by sporting teams on tour or on pre season or post season trips.
- On tour, performers say, they receive top-notch medical care and physical conditioning support.
- Why postpone it merely because the National team is on tour.
2.1 (the tour) (In golf, tennis, and other sports) the annual round of events in which top professionals compete.There is Annika Sorenstam here, the number one on the ladies' professional golf tour, the LPGA....
- Landlord Oliver Cleary is expecting a dip in takings when 10 of his regulars jet off for their annual golf tour to Portugal next month.
- Woods has chased titles and money with equal vigour since he broke onto the professional golf tour in 1996.
Synonyms
circuit, ambit;
round, course, beat, leg, lap
3 (also tour of duty) A spell of duty on military or diplomatic service: a tour of duty in Northern Ireland...
- The military has repeatedly extended tours of duty for US soldiers and placed enormous strains on the Army Reserve and Army National Guard.
- Furthermore, they also acquired sufficient skills through practical experience as part of their tours of duty in line units that were included in the course of studies.
- New arrivals in-processed in Japan as others enjoyed rest and relaxation leave, or prepared to rotate home after completing their tours of duty.
Synonyms
stint, stretch, spell, shift, turn, assignment, duty, period of service, period of enlistment
verb [with object]
1Make a tour of (an area): he decided to tour France [no object]: he toured in America and Europe...
- He last visited the island in November to tour earthquake-stricken areas in central Taiwan.
- When I did my own tour of the boros today, I tried to imagine how exactly a president tours a disaster area.
- The new Queen spent much of February touring the stricken areas to try to boost morale.
Synonyms
travel round, travel through, journey through, go on a trip through, go on an excursion in, explore, voyage around, trek around, sightsee in, holiday in, cruise, range over, roam in, rove through, wander through, globetrot
informal do
visit, go round, go around, walk round, drive round, see, explore, inspect, review, survey, scrutinize, reconnoitre
1.1Take (a performer, production, etc.) on tour: this production will be toured to outlying villages...
- Young Hamlet is the latest touring professional production to be staged at Glusburn Institute.
- He dropped out of high school in 1960 to dance in a European touring production of West Side Story.
- UK readers will be able to make up their own minds next year when the company tours the production to London, Scotland and the regions.
Origin
Middle English (in sense 3 of the noun; also denoting a circular movement): from Old French, 'turn', via Latin from Greek tornos 'lathe'. Sense 1 dates from the mid 17th century.
This was initially a word for a ‘turn’ or ‘spell of work’ (tour of duty) from an Old French word meaning ‘turn’, via Latin from Greek tornos ‘lathe’. The notion of visiting a number of places was associated with tour from the mid 17th century. Tournament and tourney (Middle English) where you turn round to confront each other are from the same source.