high roadn.
/ˈhʌɪ rəʊd/, U.S. /ˈhaɪ ˌroʊd/ 1.
a. A series of events or course of action leading to a particular outcome or goal; (also) the usual or most direct course or way of proceeding. Cf. highway n. 3.
ΘΚΠ
the world > action or operation > behaviour > [noun] > (a) course of conduct or action > specific
highwaya1393
high road1613
tram-road1859
slippery slope1951
1613 R. Dallington Aphorismes Ciuill & Militarie iv. xxxvii. 273 The Prince that sees this mischieuous seede planted and growne..and seekes not to roote it vp..is in the high-roade to his owne ruine.
1653 E. Hall Ὴ ἀποστασία ὁ ἀντίχριστος iii. 42 Profaneness in a Church-man is the high Road to Heresie and Apostasie.
1746 J. Wesley Let. 25 June (1931) II. 72 They give alms; and therefore they imagine themselves to be in the high road to heaven.
1793 T. Holcroft tr. J. C. Lavater Ess. Physiognomy (abridged ed.) xii. 64 I..will travel in the high-road of certainty, and confine myself to what is visible.
1839 W. M. Thackeray Catherine v, in Fraser's Mag. July 101/1 I was in the high road to fortune.
1876 Brit. Jrnl. Homœopathy 34 181 They refuse to wander along the honest high road of scientific therapeutics.
1914 W. Owen Let. 24 May (1967) 254 Enormously [have I advanced] in some fields [of study], but not along the marked-out high-roads.
1962 Glasgow Herald 8 Oct. 7 Dr McIntyre..is a son of the manse, always a good step on the high road to fortune in Scotland.
2000 C. Elliott in A. Hastings et al. Oxf. Compan. Christian Thought 421/1 For Augustine memory is the high road to a more authentic reality that can, in part, recapture prelapsarian innocence.
b. Originally and chiefly North American. The morally superior approach towards something. Esp. in to take the high road.
ΘΚΠ
society > morality > virtue > [noun] > conduct > course of
narrow wayOE
highwaya1200
the right way (also regionally gate) (of)a1628
straight and narrow path1842
high road1950
1950 Dunkirk (N.Y.) Evening Observer 13 May 4/4 ‘The future,’ he said, ‘is always with those who rise above [the] status quo, with those who take the high road.’
1985 D. Rasor Pentagon Underground iii. 87 That night I decided that I was going to take the high road in this conflict and that if I was fired, I would be better off with my integrity as a journalist intact.
1997 Scotsman (Nexis) 13 Mar. 8 It is time now to stop the moral meltdown: to insist, at least in the debate on Scotland's future, that we tell the truth, that we take the high road.
2013 J. Olson & M. Christensen Open your Eyes iv. 67 Think about the peace that would come to your life if every time you have been criticized you chose the high road.
2. literal. A chief or main road; a highway. Also in extended use: = highway n. 4.Less common than main road or highway.With quot. 1620, cf. the king's highway at highway n. 1a.
ΘΚΠ
society > travel > means of travel > route or way > way, path, or track > road > [noun] > main or major road
great road1614
high road1620
main road1741
highway1837
traffic artery1845
trunk road1848
main-way1862
arterial road1886
primary roada1903
route1912
arterial1920
major road1930
spine road1961
1620 R. Brathwait Ess. Fiue Senses 138 All the Posts in the Kings high roade cannot equall her for speed.
1650 in J. Stuart Extracts Presbytery Bk. Strathbogie (1843) 140 Therfra wpp the neirest rodd vpon the brae head, and therfra ascending southvard in the brae head as the hie rodd goes.
1709 R. Steele Tatler No. 144. ⁋2 [We] do not share alike in the Division of Her Majesty's High-Road.
1791 J. Boswell Life Johnson anno 1763 I. 231 Johnson: The noblest prospect which a Scotchman ever sees, is the high road that leads him to England.
1817 S. T. Coleridge Biogr. Lit. 187 Words which he hears in the market, wake, high-road, or ploughfield.
1861 J. G. Wood Sketches & Anecd. Animal Life (new ed.) 250 By the high road the mole travels to the various portions of its hunting grounds, and into the high road all the smaller runs open.
1881 W. Besant & J. Rice Chaplain of Fleet I. iii. 44 The lane led on to the high-road.
1931 E. Ferber Amer. Beauty xiii. 260 Oakes Farm was on a by-road, little traveled. The highroad lay a good mile beyond it.
1961 H. MacLennan Seven Rivers Canada 9 The strategic necessity of securing the St Lawrence as a high-road into the Ohio Territory.
2006 J. Robertson Test. Gideon Mack (2007) xiii. 95 When I ran through the woods I usually came in the other direction, from the high road.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, September 2014; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
<
n.1613