main road

Noun

main road (plural main roads)

1. A major road in a town or village, or in a country area.
   • Until the main road from Hatfield to Hertford was diverted a few years ago, heavy lorries trundling through the village sometimes knocked chunks off corner buildings, but now the village has regained much of its former tranquillity.1980, AA Book of British Villages, Drive Publications Ltd, page 224, about Hertingfordbury
2. (Northeastern, UK, US) A major urban road, off which lead many smaller streets, many of them cul-de-sacs.
   • Living near the main road means you hear a lot of traffic noise.
   • The highway to the East Coast which ran through the borough of Ebbfield had always been a main road and even now, despite the vast garages, the pylons and the gaily painted factory glasshouses which had sprung up beside it, there still remained an occasional trace of past cultures.1963, Margery Allingham, chapter 7, in The China Governess: A Mystery, London: Chatto & Windus, →OCLC
3. (South Africa) High Street; Main Street
4. A priority road; a road where entering traffic must yield right of way.