(~s, routing, ~d)
Frequency: The word is one of the 1500 most common words in English.
1.
A ~ is a way from one place to another.
...the most direct ~ to the town centre...
All escape ~s were blocked by armed police...
N-COUNT
2.
A bus, air, or shipping ~ is the way between two places along which buses, planes, or ships travel regularly.
...the main shipping ~s to Japan.
N-COUNT: oft supp N
3.
In the United States, Route is used in front of a number in the names of main roads between major cities.
...the Broadway-Webster exit on Route 580.
N-IN-NAMES: N num
4.
Your ~ is the series of visits you make to different people or places, as part of your job. (mainly AM; in BRIT, usually use round , rounds )
He began cracking open big blue tins of butter cookies and feeding the dogs on his ~...
N-COUNT
5.
You can refer to a way of achieving something as a ~.
Researchers are trying to get at the same information through an indirect ~...
= road
N-COUNT: usu with supp
6.
If vehicles, goods, or passengers are ~d in a particular direction, they are made to travel in that direction.
Double-stack trains are taking a lot of freight that used to be ~d via trucks...
Approaching cars will be ~d into two lanes.
VERB: usu passive, be V-ed prep/adv, be V-ed prep/adv
7.
En ~ to a place means on the way to that place. En ~ is sometimes spelled on ~ in non-standard English.
They have arrived in London en ~ to the United States...
One of the bags was lost en ~.
PHRASE: oft PHR to/from/for n
8.
Journalists sometimes use en ~ when they are mentioning an event that happened as part of a longer process or before another event.
The German set three tournament records and equalled two others en ~ to grabbing golf’s richest prize.
PHRASE: oft PHR to n/-ing
9.
If you go the ~, you do something fully or continue with a task until you have completely finished. (AM)
They have gone the ~, in many cases, of just big–big bowls, big statues, big masks, big everything.
PHRASE: go inflects