subway

[suhb-wey]

noun

1. especially British, tube, underground. an underground electric railroad, usually in a large city.

2. Chiefly British.,  a short tunnel or underground passageway for pedestrians, automobiles, etc.; underpass.

verb (used without object)

1. to be transported by a subway.

   We subwayed uptown.

subway

/ ˈsʌbˌweɪ /

noun

1. an underground passage or tunnel enabling pedestrians to cross a road, railway, etc

2. an underground passage or tunnel for traffic, electric power supplies, etc

3. an underground railway

Word History and Origins

Origin of subway¹

First recorded in 1820–30; sub- + way ¹

Example Sentences

He cites his successes as governor renovating LaGuardia and John F. Kennedy airports and opening the first leg of the long-awaited Second Avenue subway.

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A subway station would shorten her trips significantly, she said.

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And New York is not the easiest place to market an AI product — something the wearable AI startup Friend.com discovered when its recent subway advertisements were met with anti-AI vandalism.

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The commuters in “Le Métro” hark back to his early streetcar scenes but now there’s an air of mystery to the straphangers, with the central figure’s face obscured and bisected by a subway pole.

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“Curtis Sliwa never dropped out of anything in his life,” he said in front of a Manhattan subway station recently.

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Related Words

• metro 
• underground