'To take the road' definitions:
Definition of 'To take the road'
From: GCIDE
- Road \Road\ (r[=o]), n. [AS. r[=a]d a riding, that on which one rides or travels, a road, fr. r[imac]dan to ride. See Ride, and cf. Raid.]
- 1. A journey, or stage of a journey. [Obs.] [1913 Webster]
- With easy roads he came to Leicester. --Shak. [1913 Webster]
- 2. An inroad; an invasion; a raid. [Obs.] --Spenser. [1913 Webster]
- 3. A place where one may ride; an open way or public passage for vehicles, persons, and animals; a track for travel, forming a means of communication between one city, town, or place, and another. [1913 Webster]
- The most villainous house in all the London road. --Shak. [1913 Webster]
- Note: The word is generally applied to highways, and as a generic term it includes highway, street, and lane. [1913 Webster]
- 4. [Possibly akin to Icel. rei[eth]i the rigging of a ship, E. ready.] A place where ships may ride at anchor at some distance from the shore; a roadstead; -- often in the plural; as, Hampton Roads. --Shak. [1913 Webster]
- Now strike your saile, ye jolly mariners, For we be come unto a quiet rode [road]. --Spenser. [1913 Webster]
- On the road, or Uponthe road, traveling or passing over a road; coming or going; traveling; on the way. [1913 Webster]
- My hat and wig will soon be here, They are upon the road. --Cowper. [1913 Webster]
- Road agent, a highwayman, especially on the stage routes of the unsettled western parts of the United States; -- a humorous euphemism. [Western U.S.] [1913 Webster]
- The highway robber -- road agent he is quaintly called. --The century. [1913 Webster]
- Road book, a guidebook in respect to roads and distances.
- road kill See roadkill in the vocabulary.
- Road metal, the broken, stone used in macadamizing roads.
- Road roller, a heavy roller, or combinations of rollers, for making earth, macadam, or concrete roads smooth and compact. -- often driven by steam.
- Road runner (Zool.), the chaparral cock.
- Road steamer, a locomotive engine adapted to running on common roads.
- To go on the road, to engage in the business of a commercial traveler. [Colloq.]
- To take the road, to begin or engage in traveling.
- To take to the road, to engage in robbery upon the highways. [1913 Webster]
- Syn: Way; highway; street; lane; pathway; route; passage; course. See Way. [1913 Webster]