Word.ws English Dictionary

sawdust trail

sawdust trail noun: the route followed by an itinerant Christian preacher in the United States.

Noun

sawdust trail (plural sawdust trails)

  1. (dated, idiomatic) The route followed by an itinerant Christian preacher in the United States.
    • The Rev. William A. (Billy) Sunday, one of the most noted evangelists of the old "sawdust trail," died suddenly tonight of a heart attack in the home of his brother-in-law, William J. Thompson, a florist.1935 November 7, “Billy Sunday Dies; Evangelist Was 71; Former Ball Player Induced Thousands To 'hit Sawdust Trail' To Conversion”, in New York Times
  2. (broadly, dated, idiomatic) The path to spiritual redemption or salvation, especially as involving attendance at Christian revival meetings presided over by itinerant preachers in the United States.
    • Mr. Bernstein explained that this was not obligatory. All he meant was that the suit was good enough to be married in, or for that matter to be buried in.
      "Or to be born anew in when Billy Sunday comes to town and I hit the sawdust trail," suggested the purchaser.1920, William MacLeod Raine, chapter 3, in The Big-Town Round-Up

sawdust trail meaning in Bengali

sawdust trail in Bengali

আধ্যাত্মিক মুক্তি, পরিত্রাণের পথ

Synonyms of sawdust trail

Forms of sawdust trail

pluralsawdust trails

Origin of sawdust trail

Probably an allusion to the sawdust which covered the floors of the tents in which religious revival meetings were often held.

Questions about sawdust trail

What does sawdust trail mean?
Sawdust trail means the route followed by an itinerant Christian preacher in the United States.
What is sawdust trail in Bengali?
Sawdust trail in Bengali is আধ্যাত্মিক মুক্তি, পরিত্রাণের পথ. See Sawdust trail meaning in Bengali.
What part of speech is sawdust trail?
Sawdust trail is a noun.
What is the plural of sawdust trail?
The plural of sawdust trail is sawdust trails.

Words near sawdust trail in the dictionary

  1. sawdust circuit
  2. sawdust circuits
  3. sawdust joint
  4. sawdust joints
  5. sawdust pudding
  6. sawdust trail
  7. sawdust trails
  8. sawdusted
  9. sawdusting
  10. sawdustish
  11. sawdustlike

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: sawdust trail (page history and authors); sawdust trail (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-au-sawdust trail.ogg.

Cite this entry: “sawdust trail.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sawdust_trail. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.