road Meaning, Definition & Usage

  1. noun an open way (generally public) for travel or transportation
    route.
  2. noun a way or means to achieve something
    • the road to fame

WordNet

Road noun
Etymology
AS. rad a riding, that on which one rides or travels, a road, fr. ridan to ride. See Ride, and cf. Raid.
Definitions
  1. A journey, or stage of a journey. Obs.
    With easy roads he came to Leicester. Shak.
  2. An inroad; an invasion; a raid. Obs. Spenser.
  3. A place where one may ride; an open way or public passage for vehicles, persons, and animals; a track for travel, forming a means of communication between one city, town, or place, and another.
    The most villainous house in all the London road. Shak.
    ✍ The word is generally applied to highways, and as a generic term it includes highway, street, and lane.
  4. Possibly akin to Icel. reithi the rigging of a ship, E. ready. A place where ships may ride at anchor at some distance from the shore; a roadstead; -- often in the plural; as, Hampton Roads. Shak.
    Now strike your saile, ye jolly mariners, For we be come unto a quiet rode [road]. Spenser.
    Syn. -- Way; highway; street; lane; pathway; route; passage; course. See Way.

Webster 1913