road

road

W1S1 [rəud US roud] n

[: Old English; Origin: rad 'ride, journey']

1.) [U and C]

a specially prepared hard surface for cars, buses, bicycles etc to travel on

→↑street, motorway ↑motorway, freeway ↑freeway

▪ I was driving along the road when a kid suddenly stepped out in front of me.

▪ You'll see the library a bit further up the road .

▪ I ran down the road to see what was happening.

▪ There were loads of cars parked on the road .

▪ Protesters sat down in the road to stop the lorries.

▪ I saw Nigel on the other side of the road .

▪ Someone was standing in the middle of the road .

▪ There wasn't much traffic on the roads .

▪ I ran across the road to meet him.

▪ We stopped and had something to eat by the side of the road .

▪ The college is easily accessible by road .

▪ There are far more cars on the roads now than there used to be.

▪ I turned a corner to find the road ahead severely flooded.

▪ Be careful crossing the road .

▪ A dog ran out into the road .

▪ We turned down a side road .

▪ Beyond the garden was a fairly busy road .

▪ Kids of that age have no road sense .

▪ fatal road accidents

▪ a road safety campaign

2.) Road

written abbreviation Rd.

used in addresses after the names of roads and streets

▪ 65 Maple Road

▪ He lives on Dudley Road .

3.) on the road

a) travelling in a car, especially for long distances

▪ I've been on the road since 5:00 a.m. this morning.

b) if a group of actors or musicians are on the road, they are travelling from place to place giving performances

▪ They're on the road for six months out of every year.

c) if your car is on the road, you have paid for the repairs, tax etc necessary for you to drive it legally

▪ It would cost too much to put it back on the road.

4.) the road to sth

if you are on the road to something, you will achieve it soon, or it will happen to you soon

▪ The doctor says she's well on the road to recovery.

▪ It was this deal that set him on the road to his first million.

▪ the first step along the road to democracy

5.) go down a/this road

to choose a particular course of action

▪ Is there any scope for going down that road in the future?

▪ It depends which road you want to go down.

6.) along/down the road

in the future, especially at a later stage in a process

▪ You can always upgrade a bit further down the road if you want.

▪ Somewhere down the road, they're going to clash.

7.) one for the road

spoken a last alcoholic drink before you leave a party, ↑pub etc

→the end of the road at ↑end¹ (17)

→hit the road at ↑hit¹ (13)

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COLLOCATES for sense 1

along/up/down a road

on/in a road

on the other side of the road

in the middle of the road

by the side of the road

by road (=driving)

on the roads

cross a road

run (out) into a road

side/back road (=a small road that is not used much)

busy road (=one with a lot of traffic)

road sense (=knowledge about how to behave sensibly near traffic)

road safety

WORD FOCUS: road

a big road: main road, highway, motorway (BrE), freeway (AmE), expressway, turnpike (AmE), interstate (AmE), A-road (BrE)

a road in a town: street, avenue, boulevard

a road in the countryside: country road, lane, track

a road you pay to use: toll road

parts of a road: fast lane, slow lane, hard shoulder (BrE) shoulder (AmE), central reservation (BrE) median strip American English pavement (BrE) sidewalk (AmE)

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