highway

Etymology

From Middle English heiȝwai, heiȝwei, from Old English hēahweġ (“main road, highway”), corresponding to high + way. Compare highgate, high street, high road. Cognate with Scots heaway, heway, hieway, hichway, heichway (“highway”).

noun

1. (historical) A road that is higher than the surrounding land and has drainage ditches at the sides
2. A main public road, especially a multi-lane, high-speed thoroughfare.
   The highway to the East Coast which ran through the borough of Ebbfield had always been a main road and even now, despite the vast garages, the pylons and the gaily painted factory glasshouses which had sprung up beside it, there still remained an occasional trace of past cultures. 1963, Margery Allingham, chapter 7, in The China Governess
3. (figurative) A way; a path that leads to a certain destiny
   You're on a highway to greatness.
   I'm on the highway to hell 1979, “Highway to Hell”, in Highway to Hell, performed by AC/DC
4. (law, rail transport) Any public road for vehicular traffic.
5. (computing) Synonym of bus (“common connection for two or more circuits or components”)

verb

1. To travel on a highway