Meanings
plural thoroughways
- A way through, passageway.
Only at Knossos we have to observe that for the convenience of the palace this corridor has become a thoroughway past the front of the shrine in either direction.
1908, The Annual of the British School at Athens, volume 14, page 367 - A thoroughfare.
Today the street is still a central thoroughway through the old city, though now converted to a pedestrian zone and called the Breite Herzog-Strasse.
1998, Paul Spalding, Johann Lorenz Schmidt, Seize the Book, Jail the Author
Origin
- Middle English*thurghwei
- Englishthoroughway
From Middle English *thurghwei (attested in plural form thurghweies, thorouȝ-weies, þurȝ-weies), equivalent to thorough- + way. Doublet of throughway.
More words from Middle English
Full word history & related roots →Cite this entry
thoroughway. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/thoroughway
“thoroughway.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/thoroughway. Accessed November 3, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “thoroughway,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/thoroughway.
Source: thoroughway on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.