road postn.1
/ˈrəʊd pəʊst/, U.S. /ˈroʊd ˌpoʊst/ 1. A post on or beside the road for the guidance of travellers, a signpost. Also figurative. Now rare.
ΚΠ
1794 R. J. Sulivan View of Nature VI. cvi. 498 Saint Augustine..compared a priest..to a directing road-post.
1803 G. Colman John Bull i. i. 4 ‘Don't I see a tall customer stretching out his arms in the fog?’.. ‘Noa! that be the road-post.’
1854 H. Martineau Guide to Windermere 24 The roadpost, which indicates the two ways to the two sides of the lake.
1888 G. Birdwood Let. on Aryan Fauna & Flora in F. M. Müller Biogr. of Words 207 Pointing like road-posts the direction taken by the Turanian nations eastward and northward, and by the Caucasian nations southward and westward.
1904 Sc. Mountaineering Club Jrnl. Sept. 153 Our now horseless carriage glissaded down the dip to the cross roads... Just past the private road post we found that two trees had been felled across the road.
2. U.S. Any of a series of posts marking the edge of a road.
ΚΠ
1907 R. H. J. Newmarch tr. A. S. Pushkin in Poetry & Progress in Russia 118 I see For mile on mile the road-posts In striped monotony.
1933 Pop. Mech. Aug. 223/1 (headline) Reflectors for road posts guide autos at night.
1962 Life 18 May 34/4 The car knocked out three heavy road posts in quick succession.
1981 InfoWorld 31 Aug. 25/2 (advt.) You're racing down the highway as the road posts slip by.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, June 2010; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
road postn.2
/ˈrəʊd pəʊst/, U.S. /ˈroʊd ˌpoʊst/ Now chiefly Archaeology. A military or police post situated on a road.
ΚΠ
1868 Ann. Rep. Admin. Bengal Presidency i. 29 There are also two road posts in the Chittagong District, at which 2 head constables and 8 constables are employed.
1885 Calcutta Rev. 80 124 A Police officer..passes the remainder of his service..(3) in nightly patrolling roads..if stationed at a roadpost.
1897 R. S. S. Baden-Powell Matabele Campaign xix. 480 At Marendellas..we passed one of the fortified road posts.
1906 Jrnl. Hellenic Stud. 26 23 The position of the place may thus be deduced from two sets of data relating respectively to the Roman road-post and to the Byzantine fortress.
1940 Times 3 Feb. 5 The headmen of the tribal council agreed to road posts being established in their territory.
1997 Dumbarton Oaks Papers 51 277 It may represent a road post for a route leading from Qasr Bshīr to Qatranah.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, June 2010; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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