Forms: 4–5 thurghfare, 5 thurghe-; thoruȝ faar, thoruhfare, 6 thorowe, thoroughe, thorough fare, 6–8 thorowfare, 7–8 thorow-, thorough-fare, (7 thorow-faire, thorough fair, 7–8 thorow-, thorough-fair, 8 thorowfair, 8–9 thorofare), 7– thoroughfare. β. 5 Sc. throchtfayr, 6 throwfare, Sc. throuchfair, throuche fair, 6–7 through fare, through-fare, 7–9 throughfare. [In ME. thurghfare, 15th c. thoruȝ faar, f. þurh, þuruh, THROUGH + FARE sb.1, OE. faru passage, way, track: cf. THOROUGH- 2. Cf. Du. doorvaart (deurvaerd, Kilian) passage, esp. passage for ships (cf. 1 d below), LG. dörfard, MHG. durchvart, G. durchfahrt.]
1. A passage or way through.
a. In general sense; also fig. Now usually merged in sense c, exc. in phr. No thoroughfare, no public way through or right of way here.
c. 1386. Chaucer, Knt.’s T., 1989. This world nys but a thurghfare ful of wo, And we been pilgrymes, passynge to and fro.
1430–40. Lydg., Bochas, I. i. (MS. Bodl. 263), lf. 11/2. This world is a thoruhfare [ed. 1554 throwfare] ful of wo.
1596. Shaks., Merch. V., II. vii. 41. The Hircanion deserts, and the vaste wildes Of wide Arabia are as throughfares now For Princes to come view faire Portia.
1601. Weever, Mirr. Mart., B iv. Yet makes the wood my through-fare into heauen.
1641. Hinde, J. Bruen, lviii. 195. You … rather glory to have your house made a through-fare of profane persons.
1797–1802. G. Colman, Br. Grins, Elder Bro. (1819), 117. Making their throats a thorough-fare for wine.
1822. Byron, Juan, VII. xi. To hint, at least, ‘Here is no thoroughfare.’
1856. Emerson, Eng. Traits, Ability, Wks. (Bohn), II. 41. They have made the island a thoroughfare; and London a shop … inviting to strangers.
1893. Huxley, Sci. & Chr. Tradit., Pref. (1894), 8. Before me stood the thorny barrier with its comminatory notice-board—‘No Thoroughfare. By order. Moses.’
† b. spec. A town through which traffic passes; a town on a highway or line of traffic. Obs.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 493/2. Thurghfare, oppidum.
c. 1449. Pecock, Repr., V. vii. (Rolls), 521. Whi in a town which is a thoruȝ faar toward Londoun ben so manye ostries clepid innes?
1530. Palsgr., 200/1. Borowe or thorowe fare, bourc. Ibid., 281/1. Throwfare, bourgade, bourc.
a. 1552. Leland, Itin., IV. 131. From Uxbridge to Southall a Village about 6 Miles. Thence to Acton a pretty Through-Fare a 4 Miles.
1619. Dalton, Country Just., vii. (1630), 32. In Towns which are no thorow-fare the Justices shall … be sparing of allowing of any alehouse.
1769. De Foe’s Tour Gt. Brit., I. 87. Newmarket … being a Thorough-fare, reaps no small Advantage by that Means, as well as from the Races.
1829. Scott, Anne of G., vii. The little castle and town of Ferette … served as a thoroughfare to the traffic of Berne and Soleure.
c. A road, street, lane, or path forming a communication between two other roads or streets, or between two places; a public way unobstructed and open at both ends; esp. a main road or street, a highway.
1540. Act 32 Hen. VIII., c. 17. Chauncerie lane…. And … Fewter lane, being thorough fares and passages from Flete-strete into Holborne.
1628. Wither, Brit. Rememb., IV. 251. The Strand, that goodly thorow-fare betweene The Court and City.
1658. W. Burton, Itin. Anton., 2. Those publick Through-fares, or Waies, which the Souldiers raised.
1796. W. Marshall, W. England, II. 54. It is a large inland Market Town; but has no thorofare to support it.
1843. Bethune, Sc. Fireside Stor., 275. One of the thoroughfares to the metropolis passed through the place.
d. A piece of water, as a strait or river, affording passage for ships, etc.; an unobstructed channel. (In definite application to a particular channel, chiefly U.S.; otherwise a special case of the general sense.)
1699. Roberts, Voy. Levant, 32. There is a Thoroughfare between the Mainland … and this Isle.
1712. E. Cooke, Voy. S. Sea, 127. There is a Thorough-Fare in the Midst of it, where we rode with our Ships.
1739. Descr. Windware Passage (ed. 2), 6. A Thorough-fare for Shipping between some Islands, or other Land, as … the Gulf of Messina between the Island of Sicily and Italy.
1856. Stanley, Sinai & Pal., ii. 113. The Mediterranean was not yet the thoroughfare—it was rather the boundary … of the eastern nations.
(b) 1848. Thoreau, Maine W. (1894), 46. After one mile of river, or what the boatmen call ‘thoroughfare,’—for the river becomes at length only the connecting link between the lakes,—… we entered the North Twin Lake.
1896. Trans. Roy. Soc. Canada, II. ii. 210. Thoroughfare, a passage between lakes on the same level.
e. ‘A strait of water, or neck of land connecting two bodies of water, habitually traversed by wild fowl in migrating or passing to and from their feeding-grounds’ (Hallock, Sportsman’s Gazetteer, 1883, Gloss.).
2. The action of going or passing through, or the condition of being passed through or traversed; passage. Now rare or Obs.
1667. Milton, P. L., X. 393. Ye … have … made one Realm Hell and this World, one Realm, one Continent Of easie thorough-fare.
1668. Culpepper & Cole, Barthol. Anat., I. x. 23. Made hard and callous, by the continual thoroughfare of the Chylus.
1810. Sporting Mag., XXXVI. 57. Till custom had grown into a right of thoroughfare.
1868. Stanley, Westm. Abb., i. 4 The River Thames … here widening to an almost majestic size, yet not too wide for thoroughfare.
3. attrib. or adj. That is a thoroughfare; passed or travelled through by traffic; chiefly in thoroughfare town = sense 1 b.
[Cf. OE. þurhfere passable, in Ags. Hymnar. (Surtees), 112, 9 (Bosw.-T.) ʓeat þurhfere.]
1553. Reg. Privy Council Scot., I. 143. All villages and throuchfair townis of this realme.
1564. Yorks. Chantry Surv. (Surtees), 264. [Boroughbridge] being one thoroughffare towne of the Kinges strete.
1592. Sc. Acts Jas. VI. (1814), III. 576/1. At the principall throuche fair townis and paroche kirkis.
a. 1661. Fuller, Worthies, Hartford. (1662), II. 25. William of Ware born in that thorough fair Town twenty miles from London.
1674. N. Fairfax, Bulk & Selv., 146. The two ends of the Earths throughfare line or diameter.
1841. Lane, Arab. Nts., I. 76. Most of the great thoroughfare streets.
1908. Westm. Gaz., 10 June, 2/1. How seldom must these ancient [Italian] walled villages communicate with the thoroughfare-valleys, or the railway, or distant Rome!
