Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun A side road taken to avoid the tolls or traffic of a turnpike.
- intransitive verb To travel on side roads, avoiding turnpikes.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun A road or byway so situated, by intent or not, that travelers may avoid paying toll on the turnpike which is the main thoroughfare. Such a road may be closed by injunction.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- verb To take an unnecessarily long
route in order to avoidtraffic and/ortoll booths .
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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He wandered about so long and asked so many questions that it was getting dark when he suddenly thought of the shunpike.
The Captain's Toll-Gate Frank Richard Stockton 1868
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She seemed to have something on her mind, and presently she proposed to Mr. Morris that he should take the shunpike for a change.
The Captain's Toll-Gate Frank Richard Stockton 1868
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There was a road which branched off from the turnpike, about a mile from the town, and which, after some windings, entered the pike again beyond the toll-gate, and although this road was not always in very good condition, it had seen a good deal of travel, which, in time, gave it the name of the shunpike.
The Captain's Toll-Gate Frank Richard Stockton 1868
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"If you can only manage that that woman takes the shunpike whenever she drives this way, I shall be perfectly satisfied with everything just as it is."
The Captain's Toll-Gate Frank Richard Stockton 1868
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It would be impossible for the girl who had talked so sweetly, so earnestly, so straight from her heart, when he had met her on the shunpike, to marry such a mountebank as this fellow, generous as he might be with that which could never belong to him.
The Captain's Toll-Gate Frank Richard Stockton 1868
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Hurrying to a livery-stable, he hired a horse and buggy and a lantern, and drove to the shunpike.
The Captain's Toll-Gate Frank Richard Stockton 1868
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But since Captain Asher had lived at the toll-gate it was remarked that the shunpike was not used as much as in former times.
The Captain's Toll-Gate Frank Richard Stockton 1868
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He did not for a moment think she might return by the shunpike, for that was a rough road, not fit for a bicycle.
The Captain's Toll-Gate Frank Richard Stockton 1868
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(A shunpike is not a person but a free road that parallels a toll road.)
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a girl on a bicycle; and thus it was that he passed the entrance to the shunpike without noticing that a bicycle track turned into it.
The Captain's Toll-Gate Frank Richard Stockton 1868
bilby commented on the word shunpike
A person who prefers travelling by back roads rather than tollways or major roads. From shun + (turn)pike.
February 3, 2008