sawdust trail
Americannoun
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the road to conversion or rehabilitation, as for a sinner or criminal.
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Also called sawdust circuit. the itinerary of revival meetings.
Etymology
Origin of sawdust trail
An Americanism dating back to 1910–15; so called from the sawdust-covered aisles in the temporary constructions put up for revival meetings
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Rather than arriving at faith along the sawdust trail of American evangelicalism, Buechner came via Princeton University and, eventually, Union Theological Seminary.
From Washington Post ● Aug. 22, 2022
Graham took his fellow evangelicals from the margins to the center — from the sawdust trail to the White House.
From Washington Post ● Feb. 21, 2018
Since childhood, he has been an evangel of one kind or another, and now he is taking his sermons down the longest sawdust trail man has ever devised.
From Time Magazine Archive
Since, unlike Woodrow Wilson, he is an experienced entertainer, his colorful, worshipful sermon on internationalism may serve to bring millions of Americans a few steps forward on the sawdust trail.
From Time Magazine Archive
"Or to be born anew in when Billy Sunday comes to town and I hit the sawdust trail," suggested the purchaser.
From The Big-Town Round-Up by Raine, William MacLeod
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
