route

[ root, rout ]

noun

1. a course, way, or road for passage or travel:

   What's the shortest route to Boston?

2. a customary or regular line of passage or travel:

   There's a ship from our company on the North Atlantic route.

3. a specific itinerary, round, or number of stops regularly visited by a person in the performance of their work or duty:

   a newspaper route;

   a mail carrier's route.

   Synonyms: circuit, beat

verb (used with object)

, rout·ed, rout·ing.

1. to set the path of:

   to route a tour.

2. to send or forward by a particular course or road:

   It's the post office's job to route mail to its proper destination.

route

/ ruːt /

noun

1. the choice of roads taken to get to a place
2. a regular journey travelled
3. capital a main road between cities

   Route 66

4. mountaineering the direction or course taken by a climb
5. med the means by which a drug or agent is administered or enters the body, such as by mouth or by injection

   oral route

verb

1. to plan the route of; send by a particular route

Usage

When forming the present participle or verbal noun from the verb to route it is preferable to retain the e in order to distinguish the word from routing , the present participle or verbal noun from rout ¹, to defeat or rout ², to dig, rummage: the routeing of buses from the city centre to the suburbs . The spelling routing in this sense is, however, sometimes encountered, esp in American English

Other Words From

• mis·route verb (used with object) misrouted misrouting
• pre·route verb (used with object) prerouted prerouting
• re·route verb rerouted rerouting

Word History and Origins

Origin of route¹

First recorded in 1175–1225; Middle English: “way, course,” from Old French, from Latin rupta (via) “broken (road),” feminine past participle of rumpere “to break”; rout ¹

Word History and Origins

Origin of route¹

C13: from Old French rute , from Vulgar Latin rupta via (unattested), literally: a broken (established) way, from Latin ruptus broken, from rumpere to break, burst

Idioms and Phrases

Idioms

1. go the route, Informal.
   1. to see something through to completion:

      It was a tough assignment, but he went the route.

   2. Baseball. to pitch the complete game:

      The heat and humidity were intolerable, but the pitcher managed to go the route.

Example Sentences

Santa Rosa Avenue has no sidewalks or street lights, so for safety’s sake, once it reopens to traffic, Wardlaw recommends that visitors drive the route.

From Los Angeles Times

“My grandfather was going to become a priest at the San Gabriel Mission, and he met my grandma and didn’t go that route,” Longo says.

From Los Angeles Times

Meinzer’s interest in finding a faster alternative stemmed from his own snowboarding experiences when he’d visit the area and wade through traffic, wondering why there wasn’t a more seamless route.

From Los Angeles Times

If a team can frustrate England's batters or, even better, challenge them with a moving ball, and then have the patience to ignore captain Stokes' many traps, there is a route to victory.

From BBC

They were badly damaged en route to London, where they have been displayed ever since.

From BBC

Related Words

• transmit