travel

[ trav-uhl ]

verb (used without object)

, trav·eled, trav·el·ing or (especially British) trav·elled, trav·el·ling.

1. to go from one place to another, as by car, train, plane, or ship; take a trip; journey:

   to travel for pleasure.

2. to move or go from one place or point to another.
3. to proceed or advance in any way.
4. to go from place to place as a representative of a business firm.
5. to associate or consort:

   He travels in a wealthy crowd.

6. Informal. to move with speed.
7. to pass, or be transmitted, as light or sound.
8. Basketball. (of a player in possession of the ball) to take more than two steps without dribbling or passing the ball.
9. to move in a fixed course, as a piece of mechanism.

verb (used with object)

, trav·eled, trav·el·ing or (especially British) trav·elled, trav·el·ling.

1. to travel, journey, or pass through or over, as a country or road.
2. to journey or traverse (a specified distance):

   We traveled a hundred miles.

3. to cause to journey; ship:

   to travel logs downriver.

noun

1. the act of traveling; journeying, especially to distant places:

   to travel to other planets.

2. travels,
   1. journeys; wanderings:

      to set out on one's travels.

   2. journeys as the subject of a written account or literary work:

      a book of travels.

   3. such an account or work.
3. the coming and going of persons or conveyances along a way of passage; traffic:

   an increase in travel on state roads.

4. Basketball. an instance of traveling with the ball.
5. Machinery.
   1. the complete movement of a moving part, especially a reciprocating part, in one direction, or the distance traversed; stroke.
   2. length of stroke.
6. movement or passage in general:

   to reduce the travel of food from kitchen to table.

adjective

1. used or designed for use while traveling:

   a travel alarm clock.

travel

/ ˈtrævəl /

verb

1. to go, move, or journey from one place to another

   she travelled across France

   he travels to improve his mind

2. tr to go, move, or journey through or across (an area, region, etc)

   he travelled the country

3. to go, move, or cover a specified or unspecified distance
4. to go from place to place as a salesman

   to travel in textiles

5. (esp of perishable goods) to withstand a journey
6. (of light, sound, etc) to be transmitted or move

   the sound travelled for miles

7. to progress or advance
8. basketball to take an excessive number of steps while holding the ball
9. (of part of a mechanism) to move in a fixed predetermined path
10. informal.
    to move rapidly

    that car certainly travels

11. informal.
    often foll by with to be in the company (of); associate

noun

1. 1. the act of travelling
   2. ( as modifier ) itinerant

      a travel brochure

2. usually plural a tour or journey
3. the distance moved by a mechanical part, such as the stroke of a piston
4. movement or passage

Spelling Note

The word travel has come to exemplify a common spelling quandary: to double or not to double the final consonant of a verb before adding the ending that forms the past tense ( –ed ) or the ending that forms the present-participle ( –ing. ) We see it done both ways—sometimes with the same word ( travel, traveled, traveling; travel, travelled, travelling ). As readers, we accept these variations without even thinking about them. But as writers, we need to know just when we should double that final consonant and when we should not. Because American practice differs slightly from British practice, there is no one answer. But there are well-established conventions. In American writing, when you have a one-syllable verb that ends with a single vowel followed by a single consonant, and you want to add a regular inflectional ending that begins with a vowel, you double that final consonant before adding -ed or -ing : stop, stopped, stopping; flag, flagged, flagging. This principle also holds for verbs of more than one syllable if the final syllable is stressed: permit, permitted, permitting; refer, referred, referring. If that syllable is not stressed, there is no doubling of the final consonant: gallop, galloped, galloping; travel, traveled, traveling. British spelling conventions are similar. They deviate from American practices only when the verb ends with a single vowel followed by an l . In that case, no matter the stress pattern, the final l gets doubled. Thus British writing has repel, repelled, repelling (as would American writing, since the final syllable is stressed). But it also has travel, travelled, travelling and cancel, cancelled, cancelling, since in the context of British writing the verb’s final l, not its stress pattern, is the determining factor. Verbs ending in other consonants have the same doubling patterns that they would have in American writing. An outlier on both sides of the Atlantic is the small group of verbs ending in -ic and one lonely -ac verb. They require an added k before inflectional endings in order to retain the appropriate “hard” sound of the letter c : panic, panicked, panicking; frolic, frolicked, frolicking; shellac, shellacked, shellacking. Canadians, of course, are free to use either British or American spellings.

Other Words From

• travel·a·ble adjective
• non·travel·ing adjective
• non·travel·ling adjective
• outtravel verb (used with object) outtraveled outtraveling or (especially British) outtravelled outtravelling
• pre·travel noun verb pretraveled pretraveling or (especially British) pretravelled pretravelling
• un·travel·ing adjective
• un·travel·ling adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of travel¹

First recorded in 1250–1300; Middle English (Northern and Scots), originally the same word as travail (by semantic change from “to toil, labor,” then “to make a laborious journey,” then “to journey,” a change that did not occur in French and other Romance languages); spelling travel is due to an accent shift in the 14th century

Word History and Origins

Origin of travel¹

C14 travaillen to make a journey, from Old French travaillier to travail

Example Sentences

López said she could not travel to Mexico because she is undocumented.

From Washington Blade

Sound waves traveling thousands of kilometers through the ocean may help scientists monitor climate change.

From Science News

Biden traveled to the state days later, meeting with the Blake family and calling for unity and healing in the community, though he, too, denounced the violence that followed the shooting.

From Washington Post

TripActions says it has added nearly 500 new corporate customers since March, a surprising achievement at a time when most employees are still not traveling freely.

From Fortune

The Covid-19 coronavirus pandemic, which was first identified in China in December, has had sweeping effects in the public health, business, and travel sectors, among others.

From Vox

You just travel light with carry-on luggage, go to cities that you love, and get to hang out with all your friends.

From The Daily Beast

He did travel to China and Australia while the story was unfolding.

From The Daily Beast

In doing so he exposed the failure of other airlines in the region to see the huge pent-up demand for cheap travel.

From The Daily Beast

“The tribe is really made of people who put travel as a priority in their entire lifestyle,” says Evita.

From The Daily Beast

Brands like Lo & Sons and Delsey are already tapping Travel Noire to connect with black travelers.

From The Daily Beast

One thing was certain: Grandfather Mole could travel much faster through the water than he could underground.

From Project Gutenberg

The mothers know better than any one else how hard a way the little girl will have to travel through life.

From Project Gutenberg

He could lie in bed and string himself tales of travel and adventure while Harry was downstairs.

From Project Gutenberg

Under ordinary circumstances these men can travel with their burden from twenty to thirty miles a day.

From Project Gutenberg

The rules regulating travel on highways in this country are called, "the law of the road."

From Project Gutenberg

Related Words

• driving
• excursion
• flying
• movement
• navigation
• ride
• sailing
• sightseeing
• tour
• transit
• trek
• trip