right of way

plural rights of way · plural right of ways · alternative right-of-way · alternative ROW

1. uncountableThe right to proceed first in traffic, on land, on water or in the air. Also in metaphorical senses.

   Even when you have the right of way, you must take action to avoid a collision if another boat fails to give way.

   1994, Di Goodman, Ian Brodie, Learning to Sail, →ISBN, page 86

2. countableA legal right of passage over another's land or pathways.

   2000, "Countryside and Rights of Way Act (2000) (c.37)" (UK), II.48(4), “restricted byway” means a highway over which the public have restricted byway rights, with or without a right to drive animals of any description along the highway, but no other rights of way.

3. countableA strip of land or alignment where portions of a roadway, railway, power line, or other utilities and their associated structures and facilities is located or passes acquired through eminent domain or expropriation.

   Meronym: permanent way

   2 more examples

   Phillips granted a right-of-way to the Southern Pacific Railroad in 1873.

   1941, Writers' Program of the Work Projects Administration, Los Angeles: A Guide to the City and its Environs, page 307

   The rail might still buckle when it's extremely cold. A signals box, that's a metal box on the side of the right of way, might still overheat. So we need to make sure that our operational capacity to respond to those potential disruptions and address them as quickly as possible is a really robust part of our operations. Rail buckling is kind of part of the business in some capacity. That's what we hear from other transit agencies working in the South for example, with extreme heat.

   2026 May 6, “How the MBTA Handles Climate Change” (35:36 from the start), in Spilling the T (podcast), spoken by Caroline Bean, MBTA

4. countableLand on which a right of way exists.

   New York's Metropolitan Transportation Authority plans a rail line on an unused right of way of the Long Island Rail Road between JFK and Penn Station to whisk passengers to midtown Manhattan in twenty minutes.

   1970, Diana L. Reische, Problems of Mass Transportation, →ISBN, page 143

5. countableThe area modified for passage of a railway; often specifically the railbed and tracks.

   For example, if a railroad is required to connect a mine and a smelter, it is necessary to construct a right of way, to lay tracks, etc.

   1948, Howard Rothmann Bowen, Toward Social Economy, page 71

   1 more example

   Mayne, speaking at the 1999 meeting, ranked the trees along the right-of-way as "old growth" or "rare," although she never defined these terms.

   2006, Jane Bloodworth Rowe, “Ferrell Parkway”, in Echoes from the Poisoned Well: Global Memories of Environmental Injustice, →ISBN, page 187

   Synonyms: permanent way

6. uncountablefencingThe priority granted to the first person to properly execute an attack.

   In foil the important thing is to be sure you have the right of way. You gain right of way by starting the attack first or beating the blade last.

   2002, Elaine Cheris, Fencing: Steps to Success, →ISBN, page 63

7. countableuncountableWisconsinThe strip of grass between the sidewalk and the street.