runwayn.
/ˈrʌnweɪ/, U.S. /ˈrənˌweɪ/ Originally U.S.
1.
a. A track or pathway regularly made by an animal, esp. a deer or fish.
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society > travel > means of travel > route or way > way, path, or track > track, trail, or path > [noun] > habitually used by animals
run1575
runway1828
runaway1832
beat1834
1828 N.-Y. Spectator 11 Apr. 1/6 She would have to pass through a neck of woods..which is supposed to be a kind of runway for some wolves.
1855 Knickerbocker 45 193 The sound of the rifle has by this time brought the other hunters from their run-ways.
1894 Outing 24 453/1 After a minute's rest, to let him settle in his runway, I made a cast.
1948 A. L. Rand Mammals E. Rockies 45 Four of them [sc. species of shrews] are terrestrial animals, often making little runways through the moss.
1953 P. Provancher I live in Woods xii. 117 In winter the rabbit runway is easily distinguished in the snow.
1977 Sci. Amer. May 106/2 Rats in the laboratory have logged endless miles in runways, mazes and activity wheels.
2006 C. Frazier Thirteen Moons ii. iii. 59 I walked horse trails, footpaths, the runways of deer, and the remnants of buffalo trails.
b. Baseball. The path within which a player must remain while running between bases; = base path n. at base n.1 Compounds 2b.
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society > leisure > sport > types of sport or game > ball game > baseball > baseball ground > [noun] > running path
runway1884
1884 Milwaukee (Wisconsin) Sentinel 23 Apr. 3/1 The runways will be filled with clay and pounded hard.
1909 A. Leland in E. B. Mero Amer. Playgrounds (ed. 3) xi. 81 If there is a grass athletic field, the baseball runways and other much used parts of the diamond should be made of clay and cinders.
1991 Baseball Digest May 38/2 I used to like the ballpark with long runways.
2.
a. An artificial (sloping or horizontal) ramp or gangway.
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society > travel > means of travel > route or way > other means of passage or access > [noun] > ramp
ramp1705
runway1861
rampway1927
1861 Janesville (Wisconsin) Daily Gaz. 11 Jan. A piece of ice weighing nearly 1000 pounds sliding back on a runway caused the accident.
1883 E. W. Howe Country Town iv. 20 Pushing this into my wagon with the assistance of his wife, after we had first made a run-way of boards, I hauled him to Fairview.
1912 ‘W. Lawton’ Boy Aviators' Flight for Fortune ix. 102 The rolling glide down the runway was made..and at last the bow of the Sea Eagle's hull struck the water.
1952 Pop. Mech. Apr. 138/2 A specially made hand winch lets down a platform that serves as a runway for the handicapped Navy veteran's chair to be rolled on and off the scooter.
1996 V. Geist Buffalo Nation 42/2 It was necessary to start a bison herd down a runway toward a hidden drop off.
b. An incline down which logs are slid.
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1881 Amer. Architect & Building News 25 June 307/1 A bill in equity was brought for an injunction to restrain a riparian owner from erecting a runway for logs in the Mississippi River.
1911 Southwestern Reporter 139 534/2 He and another workman were put to work..tearing out and replacing some rotten sills beneath a runway for logs, which was eight or ten feet overhead.
1935 Sandusky (Ohio) Reg. 15 Dec. 11/5 A giant log.., one of a jam containing millions of feet of lumber, is floating at the base of an inclined runway.
1993 B. H. Krauss Plants in Hawaiian Culture iv. 49/1 There are remnants of cleared and stone-paved runways on which to drag the logs.
c. Theatre. A projecting platform, typically running down the centre isle, used as an extension of the stage.
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society > leisure > the arts > performance arts > the theatre or the stage > a theatre > stage > [noun] > plank or ramp
runway1888
joy-plank1924
1888 Scribner's Mag. Oct. 444 If there is a ‘runway’, which is an elevation like the rocky ascent in the second act of Die Walküre.., it is ‘built’ by the stage-carpenters.
1926 Amer. Speech 1 437/2 Runway, a platform built at stage level and extending part way down the center aisle of the theater. Used in burlesque and musical comedy for the presentation of chorus numbers.
1929 Variety 11 Sept. 54 Muggs still going for burlesque want that close-up of flesh which the runway provides or they won't give the teasers a tumble.
1979 Tucson (Arizona) Mag. Mar. 12/3 Producer Spots Baxter's lifeless body stretched out on the runway of his great stage.
1998 T. Jones Making Musicals 10 Eight succulent young Texas damsels..pranced out onto the runway and sang.
d. Fashion. A raised platform on which models parade when exhibiting clothes; a catwalk.
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the world > textiles and clothing > clothing > wearing clothing > modelling or displaying clothing > [noun] > gangway
runway1933
ramp1934
1933 Logansport (Indiana) Pharos Tribune 16 Sept. 6/1 If our shop doesn't look like an aviary or a barnyard then I've never swaggered on the runway, modeling evening dress.
1959 Billboard 18 May 53/2 Fashion show complete with music, commentary, and runways for modeling.
1961 Sunday Times 3 Dec. 29/2 Advertising is the next fattener of bank accounts, then fashion photography and finally live modelling on the runways at fashion shows.
1971 C. Fick Danziger Transcript 95 Fourteen skinny models rehearsing on a runway.
2001 New Yorker 19 Mar. 106/3 In recent months, the haughty sheen of the girls on the runway has also been visible on the boys.
3. A part of a coop or pen in which fowl may roam freely.
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the world > food and drink > farming > animal husbandry > keeping birds > poultry-keeping > [noun] > enclosure for poultry
walk1538
barton1552
poultry yard1715
runway1871
fowl-run1886
scratching ground1901
scratching-shed1902
1871 W. M. Lewis People's Pract. Poultry Bk. 8 The hennery should be placed in a warm, dry location..with runways ample to allow of plenty of exercise.
1886 Pall Mall Gaz. 27 Aug. 14/1 The incubators, hatching houses, brooding houses and runways have a capacity to keep 5,000 eggs in process of hatching all the time.
1913 J. London Valley of Moon xiv. 459 A goodly portion was devoted to white-washed henhouses and wired runways wherein hundreds of chickens were to be seen.
1949 Sat. Evening Post (Philadelphia) 9 Apr. 59/2 He even had a plan for one in his desk; the runways were to be painted green outside and whitewashed inside.
1995 W. J. Stadelman in W. J. Stadelman & O. J. Cotterill Egg Sci. & Technol. (ed. 4) ii. 9 The changes in production practices from the small flock, which allowed an outside runway or complete freedom to roam the barnyard, to multiple-bird caged layers.
4. The bed or channel in which a stream runs. Now rare.
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the world > the earth > water > rivers and streams > stream > [noun] > watercourse or channel
runeOE
sitchOE
pipeOE
sichetc1133
guttera1300
siket1300
sikec1330
watergate1368
gole?a1400
gotea1400
flout14..
aa1430
trough1513
guta1552
race1570
lode1572
canala1576
ditch1589
trink1592
leam1601
dike1616
runlet1630
stell1651
nullah1656
course1665
drain1700
lade1706
droke1772
regimen1797
draught1807
adit1808
sluit1818
thalweg1831
runway1874
1874 B. F. Taylor World on Wheels ii. vii. 250 Like the dusty ‘run-ways’ of thy brooks, soft pulses have grown dry and dumb.
1909 Field & Stream June 126/1 I ran across a runway and, keeping to it, made better time... Running down this dry stream bed was the easiest going I ever found.
5. A groove, channel, or structure in which a thing slides.
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society > inhabiting and dwelling > inhabited place > a building > parts of building > window or door > parts of windows > [noun] > window-frame > parts of
snacket1611
window post1658
box frame1693
pocket1881
runway1898
pocket-piece1901
shutter-rebate1901
1898 F. E. Kidder Building Constr. & Superintendence II. v. 268 The sections [of the window] slide in a grooved runway, which should preferably be secured to the jamb casings or take the place of them, and in such a way that the stop beads for the sash may be removed without disturbing the runways.
1900 R. Barr Unchanging East 309 Its runway was so smooth..that a man of ordinary strength could roll it backward and forward.
1909 Cent. Dict. Suppl. Runway, The trough by the side of a bowling alley along which the balls are rolled back from the end.
1928 Pop. Sci. Monthly Nov. 119/1 The runways are generally not painted, except the runway below the upper sash.
1997 Amer. Woodworker Dec. 66/2 The trough acts as a runway for the pouch and its projectile.
6. A specially prepared surface at an airfield or airport, along which aircraft take off and land.
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society > travel > air or space travel > airfield or airport > [noun] > runway
the tarmac1903
runway1908
1908 N.Y. Times 29 July 7/2 The airship will start from a movable runway, which will be shifted to whatever side the wind is coming from.
1926 National Geographic Mag. Sept. 363/2 We got off the end of the runway at a terrific speed.
1943 Times 16 Dec. 3/4 In northern Burma the U.S. Air Forces destroyed runways and dumps and burned barrack areas.
1977 Whitaker's Almanack 572 There was an official death toll of 576 when two Boeing 747 jumbo jets..collided on the runway at Santa Cruz airport.
2008 London Lite (Nexis) 12 Nov. 2 A string of MPs queued up to attack proposals for a third runway [at Heathrow] as bad for the environment.
Compounds
C1. General attributive (in sense 6).
runway marker n.
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1928 Oakland (Calif.) Tribune 19 Jan. 16/5 Construction of a 100-foot circular runway marker in the center of the landing field was among improvements undertaken at Oakland's municipal airport.
1939 Air Ann. Brit. Empire 65 A new metal runway marker has been introduced in order to improve the safety of aeroplane landings.
2002 Birmingham Post (Nexis) 27 Apr. 7 The Taiwanese-led investigation..concluded that confusing runway markers and broken taxiway lights created a risk for the pilots.
runway strip n.
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1936 Salt Lake Tribune 15 June 20/2 The area adjacent to the runways are [sic] to be graveled as will taxi runway strips.]
1937 Sun (Baltimore) 21 Apr. 9/6 The field should be equipped with boundary and beacon lights and the area of the runway strips outside of the paved portion should be sod.
2006 C. H. Austin Monumental xxx. 324 That is a long runway strip! I hope the circles actually mark the ends of the runway.
C2. General attributive (in sense 2d), as runway model, runway modelling, runway show, etc.
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1948 Washington Post 4 Jan. 12 m/1 (advt.) Runway modeling is taught on the runway at the Hotel Raleigh!
1950 Chicago Tribune 25 June vii. 6/5 One studying the runway models who are outstanding successes finds herself baffled too. What they have that the thousands of frustrated models don't have would be awfully hard to say.
1950 Hartford (Connecticut) Courant 25 Oct. 3/1 Since we couldn't wait for the runway show we went behind-scenes for a close-up of the clothes.
1977 Washington Post (Nexis) 3 Apr. l3 Stevie Wonder's ‘Isn't She Lovely’ is still providing the background for a few runway shows but the new favorites are Kraftwerk's ‘Europe Endless’..and ‘Trans-Europe Express’.
1988 Toronto Star (Nexis) 6 Oct. j7 Genny's complete fall runway collection, first shown to press in Milan last spring, recently made a Canadian appearance.
2000 S. Brownell in N. Dyck Games, Sports & Cultures ii. 55 Sports teach a completely different way of carrying the body from runway modelling.
2001 B. Kinsel In Dressing Room with Brenda 3 Every night before I fell asleep, images flashed under my closed lids like a slide show of runway fashions.
2009 N.Y. Mag. 21 Sept. 56/3 Small salads..designed to be nibbled at by fashionably emaciated runway models.
C3.
runway aerodrome n. an aerodrome consisting of or supplied with a runway.
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1932 Flight 29 Apr. 378/2 The new Pittsburg airport illustrates the logical development of a runway aerodrome.
1952 Aeronautics June 46/3 Both these aircraft were designed before runway aerodromes were plentiful.
runway light n. each of a series of lights marking the course of a runway.
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society > travel > air or space travel > airfield or airport > [noun] > runway > lights
landing light1917
runway light1928
1928 Salt Lake Tribune 15 June 20/2 It [sc. the airfield]is surrounded by 130 border, hazard and runway lights.
1976 ‘A. Hall’ Kobra Manifesto xv. 200 The flick-flick-flick of the runway lights, falling away.
2007 D. Morris From Flight Deck iii. 64 At the request of the pilot, the intensity of runway lights and approach lights can be adjusted.
Derivatives
ˈrunwayed adj. provided with a runway; consisting of runways.
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society > travel > air or space travel > airfield or airport > [adjective] > having runways
runwayed1946
1946 Times 30 Jan. 8/4 It was not the intention of the government to derequisition runwayed airfields.
1990 V. Orange Coningham (1992) vi. 70 Of the four [airfields], only one—Linton—was partly runwayed.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, March 2011; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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n.1828