Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A usually short journey made for pleasure; an outing.
  • noun A roundtrip in a passenger vehicle at a special low fare.
  • noun A group taking a short pleasure trip together.
  • noun A diversion or deviation from a main topic; a digression.
  • noun A movement from and back to a mean position or axis in an oscillating or alternating motion.
  • noun The distance traversed in such a movement.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To make an excursion.
  • noun The act of running out or forth; hence, deviation from a fixed or usual course; a passing or advancing beyond fixed or usual limits.
  • noun Digression; deviation; a wandering from a subject or main design; an excursus.
  • noun A journey; specifically, a short journey, jaunt, or trip to some point for a special purpose, with the intention of speedy return: as, a pleasure excursion; a scientific excursion.
  • noun A company traveling together for a special purpose; a joint expedition, especially a holiday expedition.
  • noun In physics, a movement of a moving or vibrating body from a mean position: as, the excursion of a planet from the ecliptic, of a satellite from the apparent position of its primary, or of the prong of a tuning-fork.
  • noun In machinery, the range of stroke of any moving part; the travel: as, the excursion of a pistonrod.
  • noun 7. A projecting addition to a building.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • A running or going out or forth; an expedition; a sally.
  • A journey chiefly for recreation; a pleasure trip; a brief tour.
  • A wandering from a subject; digression.
  • (Mach.) Length of stroke, as of a piston; stroke. [An awkward use of the word.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun A brief recreational trip; a journey out of the usual way.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun wandering from the main path of a journey
  • noun a journey taken for pleasure

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Latin excursiō, excursiōn-, from excursus, past participle of excurrere, to run out : ex-, ex- + currere, to run; see kers- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Latin excursio ("a running out, an inroad, invasion, a setting out, beginning of a speech"), from excurrere ("to run out"), from ex ("out") + currere ("to run").

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Examples

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  • We will be doing these on our Viking River Cruises Grand European Tour next month.

    May 9, 2013