road

Etymology

From Middle English rode, rade (“ride, journey”), from Old English rād (“riding, hostile incursion”), from Proto-West Germanic *raidu, from Proto-Germanic *raidō (“a ride”), from Proto-Indo-European *reydʰ- (“to ride”). Doublet of raid, acquired from Scots, and West Frisian reed (paved trail/road, driveway). The current primary meaning of "street, way for traveling" originated relatively late—Shakespeare seemed to expect his audiences to find it unfamiliar—and probably arose through reinterpretation of roadway "a way for riding on" as saying "way" twice, in other words as a tautological compound.

noun

1. A way used for travelling between places, originally one wide enough to allow foot passengers and horses to travel, now (US) usually one surfaced with asphalt or concrete and designed to accommodate many vehicles travelling in both directions. In the UK both senses are heard: a country road is the same as a country lane.
   In the lightness of my heart I sang catches of songs as my horse gayly bore me along the well-remembered road. 1852, Mrs M.A. Thompson, “The Tutor's Daughter”, in Graham's American Monthly Magazine of Literature, Art, and Fashion, page 266
   I stumbled along through the young pines and huckleberry bushes. Pretty soon I struck into a sort of path that, I cal'lated, might lead to the road I was hunting for. 1913, Joseph C. Lincoln, chapter 1, in Mr. Pratt's Patients
2. (uncountable) Roads in general as a means of travel, especially by motor vehicle.
   We travelled to the seaside by road.
3. (dated) A physical way or route.
4. (figurative) A path chosen, as in life or career.
   the road to happiness; the road to success.
   Where, then, is the road to peace? 1964, Ronald Reagan, A Time for Choosing
   Hodgson may actually feel England could have scored even more but this was the perfect first step on the road to Rio in 2014 and the ideal platform for the second qualifier against Ukraine at Wembley on Tuesday. September 7, 2012, Phil McNulty, “Moldova 0-5 England”, in BBC Sport
5. An underground tunnel in a mine.
6. (US, rail transport) A railway or (UK, rail transport) a single railway track.
   The new depot, on which work started in May, 1956, has three reception roads leading to 13 sidings capable of taking 25 trains, a 450 ft.-long car examination shed with nine roads, a lifting shop with two roads and three permanent way sidings. 1959 November, “L.T. and E.R. developments in East London”, in Trains Illustrated, page 527
7. (obsolete) The act of riding on horseback.
8. (obsolete) A hostile ride against a particular area; a raid.
9. (nautical, often in the plural) A partly sheltered area of water near a shore in which vessels may ride at anchor; a roadstead.
   There delivering their fraught, they went to Scandaroone; rather to view what ships was in the Roade, than any thing else […]. 1630, John Smith, True Travels, Kupperman, published 1988, page 38
10. (obsolete) A journey, or stage of a journey.

adj

1. (US, Canada, sports, chiefly attributive) At the venue of the opposing team or competitor; on the road.