Other forms: highways
A highway is a wide fast road between cities. The highway system, a highway patrol, take the highway.
It is the American word for what Britain calls a motorway or an A road. In British law, though, highway is a precise term meaning any way over which the public has a right to pass — including a footpath, which surprises people, and which is why the Highway Code covers pedestrians and horses. Note highwayman; and that the high in it means main rather than elevated.
1nounhighwayA wide fast road between cities.
“The highway was busy with trucks and cars heading to the city.”
2nounpublicAny way the public may pass over, in British law.
“The farmer could not block the old path, since it was a public highway.”
Too few real examples of this word to estimate which sense is commonest.
highway is a public road.
Also accepted in games: motorway, freeway
Old English heahweg is high plus way, where high means chief or main. High street and high road use high in exactly the same sense.
Old English
hēahweġ — main road, highway
Middle English
heiȝwai
English, today
highway
From Middle English heiȝwai, heiȝwei, from Old English hēahweġ (“main road, highway”), corresponding to high + way. Compare highgate, high street, high road. Cognate with Scots heaway, heway, hieway, hichway, heichway (“highway”).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA