rare. [In early use, OE. þurhféran (also þurhfaran str. vb.) to pass through, traverse: cf. Du. doorvaren (deurvaeren, Kilian), LG. dörfaren; OHG. durahfaran, Ger. durchfahren. In 2 from (or after) prec. sb.]
1. trans. To go, pass, or travel through.
a. 900. trans. Bæda’s Hist., IV. ii. (1890), 258. He sona ðurhferde eall Breotone ealond.
a. 1225. Leg. Kath., 1147. Hu mei he helpen oðre. Pe þurhferde deað as heo doð?
[1674, 1895: see thoroughfaring below.]
2. To pass through or traverse, as a road; to form a thoroughfare in or across.
1886. Lowell, Progr. World, in Latest Lit. Ess. (1891), 163. Those … slits that thoroughfared the older town.
So † Thoroughfared a. Obs. [f. prec. sb. + -ED2], having a thoroughfare or passage, perforated; † Thorough-farer (through-farer) Obs., one who goes or travels through, a wayfarer; Thoroughfaring (throughfaring), a going, passing, or travelling through; Thoroughfaresome (throughfaresome) a., (a) capable of being passed through, penetrable; (b) relating to passing through.
1668. Culpepper & Cole, Barthol. Anat., II. vii. 111. When the Ventricles are dilated above the *through-far’d Septum … the little holes would be shut up.
1626. in 10th Rep. Hist. MSS. Comm., App. V. 474. [To] intertaine *through-farers and passengers.
1674. N. Fairfax, Bulk & Selv., 90. There would be … no *throughfarings of the least steams or reekings of bodies.
1895. A. Nutt, Voy. Bran, I. 301. A road worn with much thoroughfaring.
1674. N. Fairfax, Bulk & Selv., 138. All body being as *throughfaresom to ghost, as tis stopping to body.
1863. De Morgan, Lett. to Whewell, in Life (1882), 319. I feel helped by the word διιέναι, because it is a very thoroughfaresome word…. It is used for going through a country, or for running a man through the body.
