"on the road" meaning in English

See on the road in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Prepositional phrase

Head templates: {{head|en|prepositional phrase}} on the road
  1. travelling, away from home.
    Sense id: en-on_the_road-en-prep_phrase-8QWZkpea Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header, Pages with 1 entry, Pages with entries Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 38 10 10 40 1 Disambiguation of Pages with 1 entry: 39 3 11 46 1 Disambiguation of Pages with entries: 38 5 12 44 1
  2. (US, Canada, sports) At the venue of an opposing team or competitor. Tags: Canada, US Synonyms: away
    Sense id: en-on_the_road-en-prep_phrase-rjiSP-SA Categories (other): American English, Canadian English, Sports Topics: hobbies, lifestyle, sports
  3. Of a purchased vehicle: including everything required in order to start driving, such as registration and taxes.
    Sense id: en-on_the_road-en-prep_phrase-ND2dwiR9 Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header, Pages with 1 entry, Pages with entries Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 38 10 10 40 1 Disambiguation of Pages with 1 entry: 39 3 11 46 1 Disambiguation of Pages with entries: 38 5 12 44 1
  4. (UK, prison slang) Not in prison. Tags: UK, slang
    Sense id: en-on_the_road-en-prep_phrase-eZoKH8-w Categories (other): British English, English entries with incorrect language header, Pages with 1 entry, Pages with entries Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 38 10 10 40 1 Disambiguation of Pages with 1 entry: 39 3 11 46 1 Disambiguation of Pages with entries: 38 5 12 44 1
  5. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see on, the, road. Related terms: road trip, on the street
    Sense id: en-on_the_road-en-prep_phrase-UFALT82O

Alternative forms

{
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "prepositional phrase"
      },
      "expansion": "on the road",
      "name": "head"
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  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "prep_phrase",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "_dis": "38 10 10 40 1",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "39 3 11 46 1",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with 1 entry",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "38 5 12 44 1",
          "kind": "other",
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          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "bold_text_offsets": [
            [
              34,
              45
            ]
          ],
          "text": "Some salesmen spend a lot of time on the road.",
          "type": "example"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "travelling, away from home."
      ],
      "id": "en-on_the_road-en-prep_phrase-8QWZkpea",
      "links": [
        [
          "travelling",
          "travelling"
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    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "American English",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Canadian English",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "langcode": "en",
          "name": "Sports",
          "orig": "en:Sports",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "At the venue of an opposing team or competitor."
      ],
      "id": "en-on_the_road-en-prep_phrase-rjiSP-SA",
      "links": [
        [
          "sports",
          "sports"
        ],
        [
          "venue",
          "venue"
        ],
        [
          "opposing",
          "opposing"
        ],
        [
          "competitor",
          "competitor"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(US, Canada, sports) At the venue of an opposing team or competitor."
      ],
      "synonyms": [
        {
          "word": "away"
        }
      ],
      "tags": [
        "Canada",
        "US"
      ],
      "topics": [
        "hobbies",
        "lifestyle",
        "sports"
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "_dis": "38 10 10 40 1",
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          "parents": [],
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        {
          "_dis": "39 3 11 46 1",
          "kind": "other",
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          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
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          "_dis": "38 5 12 44 1",
          "kind": "other",
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          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Of a purchased vehicle: including everything required in order to start driving, such as registration and taxes."
      ],
      "id": "en-on_the_road-en-prep_phrase-ND2dwiR9",
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    {
      "categories": [
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          "kind": "other",
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      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Not in prison."
      ],
      "id": "en-on_the_road-en-prep_phrase-eZoKH8-w",
      "links": [
        [
          "prison",
          "prison"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(UK, prison slang) Not in prison."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "UK",
        "slang"
      ]
    },
    {
      "glosses": [
        "Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see on, the, road."
      ],
      "id": "en-on_the_road-en-prep_phrase-UFALT82O",
      "links": [
        [
          "on",
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        ],
        [
          "the",
          "the#English"
        ],
        [
          "road",
          "road#English"
        ]
      ],
      "related": [
        {
          "_dis1": "7 3 4 24 62",
          "word": "road trip"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "7 3 4 24 62",
          "word": "on the street"
        }
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "on the road"
}
{
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    "English lemmas",
    "English multiword terms",
    "English prepositional phrases",
    "Pages with 1 entry",
    "Pages with entries"
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  "pos": "prep_phrase",
  "related": [
    {
      "word": "road trip"
    },
    {
      "word": "on the street"
    }
  ],
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English terms with usage examples"
      ],
      "examples": [
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          "bold_text_offsets": [
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              34,
              45
            ]
          ],
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        }
      ],
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        "travelling, away from home."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
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          "travelling"
        ]
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        "American English",
        "Canadian English",
        "en:Sports"
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "At the venue of an opposing team or competitor."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "sports",
          "sports"
        ],
        [
          "venue",
          "venue"
        ],
        [
          "opposing",
          "opposing"
        ],
        [
          "competitor",
          "competitor"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(US, Canada, sports) At the venue of an opposing team or competitor."
      ],
      "synonyms": [
        {
          "word": "away"
        }
      ],
      "tags": [
        "Canada",
        "US"
      ],
      "topics": [
        "hobbies",
        "lifestyle",
        "sports"
      ]
    },
    {
      "glosses": [
        "Of a purchased vehicle: including everything required in order to start driving, such as registration and taxes."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "vehicle",
          "vehicle"
        ],
        [
          "registration",
          "registration"
        ],
        [
          "tax",
          "tax"
        ]
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        "British English",
        "English prison slang"
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Not in prison."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "prison",
          "prison"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(UK, prison slang) Not in prison."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "UK",
        "slang"
      ]
    },
    {
      "glosses": [
        "Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see on, the, road."
      ],
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        [
          "on",
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        ],
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          "the",
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        ],
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        ]
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "on the road"
}

Download raw JSONL data for on the road meaning in English (1.7kB)


This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2025-08-04 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2025-08-02 using wiktextract (a681f8a and 3c020d2). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.