Road (?), n. [AS. rād a riding, that on which one rides or travels, a road, fr. rīdan to ride. See Ride, and cf. Raid.]

1. A journey, or stage of a journey. [Obs.]

With easy roads he came to Leicester. Shak.

2. An inroad; an invasion; a raid. [Obs.] Spenser.

3. A place where one may ride; an open way or public passage for vehicles, persons, and animals; a track for travel, forming a means of communication between one city, town, or place, and another.

The most villainous house in all the London road. Shak.

☞ The word is generally applied to highways, and as a generic term it includes highway, street, and lane.

4. [Possibly akin to Icel. reiði the rigging of a ship, E. ready.] A place where ships may ride at anchor at some distance from the shore; a roadstead; -- often in the plural; as, Hampton Roads. Shak.

Now strike your saile, ye jolly mariners, For we be come unto a quiet rode [road]. Spenser.

On, or Upon, the road, traveling or passing over a road; coming or going; on the way.

My hat and wig will soon be here, They are upon the road. Cowper.

-- Road agent, a highwayman, especially on the stage routes of the unsettled western parts of the United States; -- a humorous euphemism. [Western U.S.]

The highway robber -- road agent he is quaintly called. The century.

-- Road book, a guidebook in respect to roads and distances. -- Road metal, the broken, stone used in macadamizing roads. -- Road roller, a heavy roller, or combinations of rollers, for making earth, macadam, or concrete roads smooth and compact. -- often driven by steam. -- Road runner(Zoöl.), the chaparral cock. -- Road steamer, a locomotive engine adapted to running on common roads. -- To go on the road, to engage in the business of a commercial traveler. [Colloq.] -- To take the road, to begin or engage in traveling. -- To take to the road, to engage in robbery upon the highways.

Syn. -- Way; highway; street; lane; pathway; route; passage; course. See Way.

-- Webster's unabridged 1913