inroad
/ˈɪnrəʊd
/noun
1 (usually make inroads in/into/on) An instance of something being encroached on or reduced by something else: the firm is beginning to make inroads into the UK market serious inroads had now been made into my pitiful cash reserves...
- He hopes to bag another 20 seats; he might make inroads into more Labour urban heartlands - Hartlepool, perhaps - but Tory seats are still his prime pickings.
- Microsoft's blog abbreviation debacle comes as blogging in general and RSS specifically make inroads into more spheres of business and personal life.
- Any Democratic ticket will need to make inroads into at least one Republican-leaning area, as well as keeping what Gore got in 2000.
2A hostile attack; a raid: the inroads and cross-border raiding of the Grahams...
- In order to deter landing inroad and passing through the channel by enemy forces, the mining operation is also conducted on the occasion of making minefields on the shore or key channel where enemy landing invasions will be expected.
- It may also reference a sudden and violent inroad, or entrance of invaders.
Origin
Mid 16th century (in sense 2): from in + road (from an early use in the sense 'riding').
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