Definitions

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

  • noun An underground urban railroad, usually operated by electricity.
  • noun A passage for such a railroad.
  • noun An underground tunnel or passage, as for a water main or for pedestrians.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun An underground way; an accessible underground passage containing gas- and water-mains, telegraph-wires, etc.

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

  • noun An underground way or gallery; especially, a passage under a street, in which water mains, gas mains, telegraph wires, etc., are conducted.
  • noun An underground railroad, usually having trains powered by electricity provided by an electric line running through the underground tunnel. It is usually confined to the center portion of cities; -- called also tube, and in Britain, underground. In certain other countries (as in France or Russia) it is called the metro.

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

  • noun North America An underground railway, especially for mass transit of people in urban areas.
  • noun US A rapid transit system, regardless of the elevation of its right of way.
  • noun UK underground walkway, tunnel for pedestrians (called pedestrian underpass in US).
  • verb intransitive, US, informal To travel by underground railway.

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

  • noun an underground tunnel or passage enabling pedestrians to cross a road or railway
  • noun an electric railway operating below the surface of the ground (usually in a city)

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

sub- ("under") + way

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