[f. TRACK sb. + WAY.]
1. A path beaten by the feet of passers, a track; also, an ancient British roadway, a ridgeway.
1818. Kirby & Sp., Entomol., II. 98. Gould, speaking of his jet-ant (F[ormica] fuliginosa), says that they make several main track-ways, (streets he calls them,) with smaller paths striking off from them, extending sometimes to the distance of forty feet from their nest.
1826. W. A. Miles, Deverel Barrow, 8. The line of hill, south of Maiden-Castle, near Dorchester, where the British trackway runs for many miles.
1848. S. Rowe, Peramb. Dartmoor, 45. Trackways, under which designation those roads, or causeways, which cross the moor in various directions are generally known.
1891. T. Hardy, Tess, xi. They were no longer on hard road, but in a mere track way.
2. a. A tramway. b. A railway (Funk’s Stand. Dict., 1895).
1858. Simmonds, Dict. Trade, Track-way, a tram-road.
3. [f. TRACK-.] A towing-path.
1873. Act 36 & 37 Vict., c. 34. Preamble, Any towing path and trackway on the bank of any navigable river.
