travel
Pronunciation
  • IPA: /ˈtɹævəl/
Etymology 1

From Middle English travelen from gmw-msc travailen, alteration of Middle English travaillen, from Old French travailler.

Largely displaced fare, from Old English faran.

Verb

travel (third-person singular simple present travels, present participle travelling or (US) traveling, simple past and past participle travelled or (US) traveled)

  1. (intransitive) To be on a journey, often for pleasure or business and with luggage; to go from one place to another.
    John seems to spend as much time travelling as he does in the office.
    • 1661, John Stephens, An Historical Discourse..., Prol.:
      He that feareth oblatration must not travel.
  2. (intransitive) To pass from one place to another; to move or transmit.
    Soundwaves can travel through water.
    The supposedly secret news of Mary's engagement travelled quickly through her group of friends.
  3. (intransitive, basketball) To move illegally by walking or running without dribbling the ball.
  4. (transitive) To travel throughout (a place).
    I’ve travelled the world.
  5. (transitive) To force to journey.
    • 1596 (date written; published 1633), Edmund Spenser, A Vewe of the Present State of Irelande […], Dublin: […] Societie of Stationers, […], →OCLC ↗; republished as A View of the State of Ireland […] (Ancient Irish Histories), Dublin: […] Society of Stationers, […] Hibernia Press, […] [b]y John Morrison, 1809, →OCLC ↗:
      They shall not be travailed forth of their own franchises.
  6. (obsolete) To labour; to travail.
Conjugation Synonyms Translations Translations Translations Translations Etymology 2

From Middle English travail, travell, from Old French travail, travaille, travaillie, traval, travalle, traveaul, traveil, traveille, travel.

Noun

travel

  1. The act of traveling; passage from place to place.
    space travel
    travel to Spain
  2. (in the plural) A series of journeys.
    I’m off on my travels around France again.
  3. (in the plural) An account of one's travels.
    He released his travels in 1900, two years after returning from Africa.
    • 1903, Henry Yule, Arthur Burnell, Hobson-Jobson:
      CALUAT, s. This in some old travels is used for Ar. khilwat, 'privacy, a private interview' (C. P. Brown, MS.).
  4. The activity or traffic along a route or through a given point.
  5. The working motion of a piece of machinery; the length of a mechanical stroke.
    There was a lot of travel in the handle, because the tool was out of adjustment.
    My drill press has a travel of only 1.5 inches.
  6. (obsolete) Labour; parturition; travail.
  7. Distance that a keyboard's key moves vertically when depressed.
    The keys have great travel.
Synonyms Translations Translations Translations


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