road

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   A hard surface built for vehicles and people to travel along.

   We drove down a narrow country road.

2. 2
   noun

   Travel by road, especially by car or truck.

   We sent the furniture by road rather than by rail.

3. 3
   noun

   A way or process that leads to a goal.

   Hard work is the road to success.

Common collocations

• busy road Adjective + noun
• main road Adjective + noun
• build a road Verb + noun
• cross a road Verb + noun
• take a road Verb + noun
• block a road Verb + noun
• frontage road Noun + noun
• road construction Noun + noun
• road mender Noun + noun
• road rage Noun + noun
• road runner Noun + noun
• skid road Noun + noun

From Middle English rode, rade (“ride, journey”), from Old English rād (“riding, hostile incursion”), from Proto-West Germanic *raidu, from Proto-Germanic *raidō (“a ride”), from Proto-Indo-European *reydʰ- (“to ride”). Doublet of raid, acquired from Scots. Cognates include West Frisian reed (paved trail/road, driveway). The current primary meaning of "street, way for traveling" originated relatively late — Shakespeare seemed to expect his audiences to find it unfamiliar — and probably arose through reinterpretation of roadway (“a way for riding on”) as saying way twice, in other words as a ta…

Topics

External links

• Cambridge Dictionary
• Wiktionary
• Google Images