Definition of "traffic"

traffic

/ˈtɹæfɪk/

noun
usually uncountable, plural traffics
1. Moving pedestrians or vehicles, or the flux or passage thereof.
  Quotations
  VVhoſe miſaduentures, piteous ouerthrovves, / (Through the continuing of their Fathers ſtrife, / And death-markt paſſage of their Parents rage) / Is novv the tvvo hovvres traffique of our Stage.
  c. 1591–1595 (date written), [William Shakespeare], “The Prologue”, in […] Romeo and Juliet. […] (First Quarto), London: […] Iohn Danter, published 1597
2. Commercial transportation or exchange of goods, or the movement of passengers or people.
  Quotations
  I had three large axes, and abundance of hatchets (for we carried the hatchets for traffic with the Indians).
  1719 May 6 (Gregorian calendar), [Daniel Defoe], The Life and Strange Surprizing Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, […], 3rd edition, London: […] W[illiam] Taylor […], published 1719
  To assume that the recent investigation of the white slave traffic (and, by the way, a very superficial investigation) has discovered anything new, is, to say the least, very foolish
  1910, Emma Goldman, “The Traffic in Women”, in Anarchism and Other Essays‎
  Its units of study are regions or oceans, long-distance trades [...], the traffic of cults and beliefs between cultures and continents.
  2007, John Darwin, After Tamerlane, Penguin, page 12
3. Illegal trade or exchange of goods, often drugs.
  Quotations
  They, in turn, had long dominated the drug traffic in the area of north-east Afghanistan that they controlled during the Taliban years.
  2018 January 9, Alfred W. McCoy, “How the heroin trade explains the US-UK failure in Afghanistan”, in The Guardian‎
4. Exchange or flux of information, messages or data, as in a computer or telephone network.
  Quotations
  The parish stank of idolatry, abominable rites were practiced in secret, and in all the bounds there was no one had a more evil name for the black traffic than one Alison Sempill, who bode at the Skerburnfoot.
  1902, John Buchan, The Outgoing of the Tide
  Internet traffic to legal pornography sites in the UK comprised 8.5% of all "clicks" on web pages in June – exceeding those for shopping, news, business or social networks, according to new data obtained exclusively by the Guardian.
  2013 July 26, Charles Arthur, “Porn sites get more internet traffic in UK than social networks or shopping”, in The Guardian‎
  1. (radio) In CB radio, formal written messages relayed on behalf of others.
  2. (advertising) The amount of attention paid to a particular printed page etc. in a publication.
    Quotations
    Those fixed locations which are sold to advertisers become preferred according to the expected page traffic.
    1950, Advertising & Selling (volume 43, part 2, page 53)
5. Commodities of the market.
  Quotations
  You'll see a draggled damsel / From Billingsgate her fishy traffic bear.
  1716, John Gay, Trivia, or The Art of Walking the Streets of London‎
verb
third-person singular simple present traffics, present participle trafficking, simple past and past participle trafficked
1. (intransitive) To pass goods and commodities from one person to another for an equivalent in goods or money; to buy or sell goods.
2. (intransitive) To trade meanly or mercenarily; to bargain.
3. (transitive) To exchange in traffic; to effect by a bargain or for a consideration.
  Quotations
  A Libyan longing took us, and we would have chosen, if we could, to bear a strand of grotesque beads, or a handful of brazen gauds, and traffic them for some sable maid with crisp locks, whom, uncoffling from the captive train beside the desert, we should make to do our general housework forever, through the right of lawful purchase.
  1912, The World's Wit and Humor, page 176
adjective
comparative more traffic, superlative most traffic
1. (Philippines) congested

Definition of "traffic"

traffic

noun

Quotations

Quotations

Quotations

Quotations

Quotations

Quotations

verb

Quotations

adjective