[attrib. use of THROUGH adv., primarily used with verbal sbs., nouns of action, agent-nouns, and the like, derived from vbs. qualified by the adv., or with ellipsis of a pple. of such a verb, as in through (going) way; afterwards in various extended or transferred uses.]
1. That passes, extends, or affords passage through something. (See also THOROUGH a. 1; THROUGH- 2.)
spec. Of a bolt, rivet, etc.: Passing through the whole thickness of that in which it is fixed: see also through-bolt s.v. THROUGH- 2. Through bridge: see quot. 1877. Through lights: see THOROUGH-LIGHT.
1523. [see through-serewe, -spavin in THROUGH- 2].
c. 1578. [see THROUGH-PASSAGE].
1596. Spenser, State Irel., Wks. (Globe), 614/1. Was there not a through way then made by the swoord for the imposing of lawes uppon them?
1605. Bacon, Adv. Learn., II. ii. § 14. The opennesse and through passage of the world … were appointed to be in the same ages.
1865. Once a Week, 10 June, 679/1. Building houses back to back without any ‘through’ ventilation.
1877. Knight, Dict. Mech., Through bridge, one in which the track rests on the lower stringer, in contradistinction to a deck-bridge.
1889. Welch, Text Bk. Naval Archit., iv. 74. The rivets are of two kinds, through (or clenched) and tap.
b. That goes, extends, or conveys through the whole of a long distance or journey without interruption, or without change; as a through train, passenger, line of railway, fare, ticket, traffic.
1845. Boston (Mass.) Transcript, 29 Nov., 3/2. Through tickets may be obtained for Montreal.
1846. Boston (Mass.) Traveller, 2 July. Through trains from Boston.
1858. Hawthorne, Fr. & It. Note-bks. (1872), I. 1. Having taken through tickets to Paris by way of Folkestone and Boulogne.
1861. Jefferson Davis, Message to Confederate Congress Amer., 18 Nov. The construction of this … line would give us a through route from North to South.
1861. Sat. Rev., 7 Sept., 236. The through traffic to Scotland has been carried on by eight independent Companies.
1884. Gt. West. Railw. Time Tables, July, 10. The direct Through Trains between Aldgate and Richmond.
1890. Daily News, 12 Nov., 7/2. Any railway to which there is through booking from Aldershot.
1893. Earl Dunmore, Pamirs, I. 83. A few merchants carry on a through trade between India and Turkestan.
1905. Sat. Rev., 21 Oct., 522/2. What with the through travellers and the … traffic, there was no lack of variety.
c. Of an organ-stop: Extending through the whole compass of the keyboard.
1881. C. A. Edwards, Organs, 146. All the foundation … stops of a really good organ should be through stops.
† 2. Going through or affecting the whole of something; = THOROUGH a. 2. Obs.
Through coal, or through and through coal, coal as it comes from the pit, i.e., large and small mixed indiscriminately.
1542. Udall, Erasm. Apoph., 80. That thei might … haue a through sight in it.
1581. Sidney, Apol. Poetrie (Arb.), 49. From a through beholding the worthines of the subiect.
1607. Hieron, Wks., I. 462. To speake of a true and through reformation.
1647. Clarendon, Hist. Reb., III. § 211. There was not a Grievance … to which there was not a through Remedy applied.
1696. Vanbrugh, Relapse, Epil. 22. You never saw a through republican a finish’d beau.
1710. Prideaux, Orig. Tithes, ii. 69. If on through search and examination they were approved of.
