Bradshawn.
/ˈbradʃɔː/, U.S. /ˈbrædˌʃɔ/, /ˈbrædˌʃɑ/ Colloquial designation of ‘Bradshaw's Railway Guide’, a time-table of all railway trains running in Great Britain, the earliest form of which was first issued at Manchester in 1839. (Ceased publication in 1961.) Also transferred and figurative.
ΘΚΠ
society > travel > rail travel > [noun] > railway guide or timetable > specific
Bradshaw1847
1847 F. A. Kemble Let. in Rec. Later Life (1882) III. 289 You ask me what book I read now to put me to sleep—why, Murray's ‘Handbook for France’..and the foreign ‘Bradshaw’.
1851 Fraser's Mag. Jan. 126/1 It is always dangerous to travel upon the faith of an old Bradshaw.
1855 A. Trollope Warden xvi. 254 He was at breakfast at nine, and for the twentieth time consulted his ‘Bradshaw’.
1856 ‘G. Eliot’ Ess. (1884) 229 The word railways, for example, will probably call up, in the mind of a man who is not highly locomotive, the image either of a ‘Bradshaw’, or of the station with which he is most familiar.
1884 ‘E. Lyall’ We Two II. iii. 64 She went at once..for the Bradshaw.
1914 ‘Bartimeus’ Naval Occasions xi. 77 The young Doctor looked up from the year-old ‘Bradshaw’ with which he was wont to enliven moments of depression by arranging mythical week-ends at friends' houses in various parts of England.
1923 J. M. Murry Pencillings 201 Reading reviews is a minor and fascinating science like the study of the continental Bradshaw.
1954 J. Masters Bhowani Junction xxx. 257 The girl's a walking Bradshaw.
1959 Times 20 May 11/7 It would be the easiest thing in the world for a new D.N.B. to become the Tom Tiddler's ground of historical specialists and so to cease to count as more than a ‘Bradshaw’ for students.
1961 Economist 18 Mar. 1047/1 Poor Bradshaw is, no doubt, irreplaceable. His approaching demise, in May, is one that countless thousands precipitately and inconsolably mourn.
Derivatives
ˈBradshaw v. (a) transitive to make a ‘Bradshaw’ for; (b) intransitive (R.A.F. slang) to follow a railway in flying.
ΘΚΠ
society > travel > rail travel > [verb (transitive)] > make railway guide for (a route)
Bradshaw1887
society > travel > air or space travel > action of flying (in) aircraft > navigation of course of aircraft > navigate aircraft [verb (intransitive)] > follow railway lines
Bradshaw1887
1887 H. W. Daly Digging, Squatting, & Pioneering Life S. Austral. 253 Mr. Westgarth says: ‘If the through route of Central Australia is some day to be Bradshawed.’
1946 E. C. Cheesman Brief Glory ii. 21 I knew the only thing to do was to ‘Bradshaw’: in other words to follow the railways.
ˈBradshawing n.
ΘΚΠ
society > travel > air or space travel > action of flying (in) aircraft > navigation of course of aircraft > [noun] > by observation of landmarks > by following railway lines
Bradshawing1946
1946 A. Phelps I couldn't care Less iii. 25 Bradshawing can sometimes lead into trouble... I dislike following a railway except in extreme emergency when forced to fly low.
This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1933; most recently modified version published online December 2021).
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n.1847