thoroughfare

[thur-oh-fair, -uh-fair, thuhr-]

See more synonyms for thoroughfare on Thesaurus.com

noun

a road, street, or the like, that leads at each end into another street.
a major road or highway.
a passage or way through: no thoroughfare.

a strait, river, or the like, affording passage.

Origin of thoroughfare

First recorded in 1350–1400, thoroughfare is from the Middle English word thurghfare. See thorough, fare

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Related Words for thoroughfare

lane, boulevard, freeway, street, artery, expressway, avenue, highway, causeway, waterway, strait, passage, road, turnpike, path, channel, parkway

Examples from the Web for thoroughfare

Contemporary Examples of thoroughfare

Davis was one of the last ones out and hurried to follow the other hostages, who were being marched down the thoroughfare.
‘Argo’ in the Congo: The Ghosts of the Stanleyville Hostage Crisis
Nina Strochlic
November 23, 2014
On a busy Manhattan thoroughfare, the artist Andy Golub painted the bodies of nude models.
Naked on a New York Street—for Art
Emily Shire
September 16, 2014
A thoroughfare for freedom beat Freedom from Washington regulation is more like it!
Mitt Romney Finds the Funny in ‘America the Beautiful’ (VIDEO)
Mark Katz
February 10, 2012

Historical Examples of thoroughfare

The path was wider and more worn now--almost a thoroughfare, in fact.
In the Valley
Harold Frederic
Quickly her glance returned to his face; his gaze was bent down the thoroughfare.
The Strollers
Frederic S. Isham
Hitch Pegasus to a family cart and he can't go off the thoroughfare.
Potts's Painless Cure
Edward Bellamy
It would entirely change the thoroughfare of the world's commerce.
The Adventures of the Chevalier De La Salle and His Companions, in Their Explorations of the Prairies, Forests, Lakes, and Rivers, of the New World, and Their Interviews with the Savage Tribes, Two Hundred Years Ago
John S. C. Abbott
It turned their hopes and aspirations in a way which was really "no thoroughfare."
The Negro and the Nation
George S. Merriam

British Dictionary definitions for thoroughfare

thoroughfare

noun

a road from one place to another, esp a main road
way through or accessno thoroughfare

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for thoroughfare

late 14c., "passage or way through," from thorough + fare.