Thenoun is derived fromin +road(“(obsolete) act of riding on horseback; hostile ride against a particular area, raid”).[1]
Theverb is derived from the noun.[2]
inroad (pluralinroads)
- (military, also figuratively) Anadvance intoenemyterritory, anattemptedinvasion; anencroachment, anincursion.
- Synonyms:foray,inbreak,inbreaking,infall,raid
1537, David Scott, “Papers Illustrative of the Trial ofJonet Lady Glammys. I. Narrative Taken from the History of Scotland, by David Scott of the Inner Temple.”, in [Robert Pitcairn, compiler],Criminal Trials and Other Proceedings before the High Court of Justiciary in Scotland, part IX (Trials during the Reigns of King James the Fourth and Fifth),[Edinburgh]: Printed at theBannatyne Club Press byBallantyne and Co., published1831,→OCLC,page192:
1586,T[imothie] Bright, “The Particular Aunswere to the Obiections Made in the II Chapter”, inA Treatise of Melancholie. […], London: […] Thomas Vautrollier, […],→OCLC,page75:[A] child knowing the heate of fire, will as readely iudge of the perrill, as the wiſeſt Senatour, of theinroad of a borderer, or the politick captaine, of the vnequall encoũter with his enimy,[…]
1683,Samuel Annesley, “The Chamber of Imagery in the Church of Rome Laid Open; or An Antidote against Popery. […] Sermon X.”, inA Continuation of Morning-Exercise Questions and Cases of Conscience, Practically Resolved by Sundry Ministers, in October, 1682, London: […] J. A. forJohn Dunton […],→OCLC,page221:Whence is it that ſo many corrupt Opinions have made ſuch anInroad onProteſtant Religion, and the Profeſſion of it? Is it not from hence, that many have loſt anExperience of the power and efficacy of the Truth, and ſo have parted with it?
1712 March 4 (date written; Gregorian calendar),J[onathan] Swift,A Proposal for Correcting, Improving and Ascertaining the English Tongue; […], 2nd edition, London: […] Benj[amin] Tooke, […], published1712,→OCLC,page 9:[T]heBritains, left to ſhift for themſelves, and daily haraſſed by cruelInroads from thePicts, were forced to call in theSaxons for their Defence;[…]
1834,L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter XVII, inFrancesca Carrara. […], volume I, London:Richard Bentley, […], (successor toHenry Colburn),→OCLC,page181:While from their lovely climate, the poets native to their sweet south, the old ruins hallowed with the memories of other days, the lovely paintings, the still diviner statues, which had been their constant companions—the character had imperceptibly caught a tone of romance, calculated long to resist theinroads of worldliness and deceit.
1844 January–December,W[illiam] M[akepeace] Thackeray, “My Pedigree and Family.—Undergo the Influence of the Tender Passion”, in“The Memoirs of Barry Lyndon, Esq. [The Luck of Barry Lyndon.]”, in Miscellanies: Prose and Verse, volume III, London:Bradbury and Evans, […], published1856,→OCLC,page 2:[A] certain English colonel passed though the former's country with a body of men-at-arms, on the very day when the O'Mahonys had made aninroad upon our territories, and carried off a frightful plunder of our flocks and herds.
1850 February 1,Thomas Carlyle, “No. I. The Present Time.”, inLatter-Day Pamphlets, London:Chapman and Hall, […],→OCLC,pages5–6:And everywhere the people, or the populace, take their own government upon themselves; and open 'kinglessness,' what we callanarchy,[…] is everywhere the order of the day. Such was the history, from Baltic to Mediterranean, in Italy, France, Prussia, Austria, from end to end of Europe, in those March days of 1848. Since the destruction of the old Roman Empire byinroad of the Northern Barbarians, I have known nothing similar.
1910,Gilbert K[eith] Chesterton, “The Modern Slave”, inWhat’s Wrong with the World, London; New York, N.Y.:Cassell and Company, […],→OCLC, part III (Feminism: Or the Mistake about Woman),page177:If clerks do not try to shirk their work, our whole great commercial system breaks down. Itis breaking down, under theinroad of women who are adopting the unprecedented and impossible course of taking the system seriously and doing it well.
1954 May, John W. Grant, “A Railway Requiem”, inRailway Magazine, page351:On the Great North of Scotland section, always a stronghold of four-coupled engines, a great number of small 4-4-0s, some over fifty years old, were still going strong in 1945, but seriousinroads are being made into their numbers now.
2009,Marcia Pointon, “Fault Lines and Points of Light”, inBrilliant Effects: A Cultural History of Gem Stones and Jewellery, New Haven, Conn.; London: […] [F]or thePaul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art byYale University Press,→ISBN, part 1 (Stories Touching Stones),page19, column 1:[T]he discourse of ornament was energetically appropriated by those anxious to defend masculinity and protect feminine virtue against theinroads of luxury and its ill effects on morality.
2011,Mark Freedland, Nicola Kountouris, “The Termination and Transformation of Employment Contracts”, inThe Legal Construction of Personal Work Relations, Oxford, Oxfordshire:Oxford University Press,→ISBN,page224:[I]n many European states, the whole notion of retirement at pensionable age and consequential entitlement to a pension seems to fall within the domain of social security law rather than forming part of the contract-based system of regulation of termination of employment. There may therefore be significantinroads into the notion of a unified or integrated contract-based system of regulation of termination of employment. However, in most European legal systems it would seem that theseinroads do not encroach upon the essential integrity or unity of the contract-based system of regulation of termination of employment.
- (figuratively, usually in theplural)Often followed byin,into, oron:initialprogressmade towardaccomplishing agoal orsolving aproblem.
Three weeks into it, I am finally beginning to makeinroads on this project.
1983 October 10, Eugenie Ross-Leming, Brad Buckner, “If Thoughts Could Kill”, inScarecrow and Mrs. King, season 1, episode 3:You must have been fairly surprised at Dr. Glaser'sinroads into reprogramming the brain.
2005,Yiannis Gabriel, “Foreword”, in Ian Cutler,Cynicism fromDiogenes toDilbert, Jefferson, N.C.; London:McFarland & Company,→ISBN,pages2–3:Even in our post-Darwinian society, with evolutionary theory makinginroads in many areas of the social and human sciences, the cynics' insight retains an ability to stimulate and to provoke.
2014, Mark W. Greenlee, “The Neuronal Base of Perceptual Learning and Skill Acquisition”, in Stephen Billett, Christian Harteis, Hans Gruber, editors,International Handbook of Research in Professional and Practice-based Learning (Springer International Handbooks of Education), Dordrecht:Springer,→DOI,→ISBN,→ISSN, part II (Research Paradigms),page330:These insights open up novelinroads in the area of neurorehabilitation by demonstrating that disorders such as amblyopia might be accessible to perceptual training protocols.
advance into enemy territory
—see alsoincursioninitial progress made toward accomplishing a goal or solving a problem
inroad (third-person singular simple presentinroads,present participleinroading,simple past and past participleinroaded)
- (intransitive, archaic) Tomakeadvances orincursions.
1792,Joseph Emin,The Life and Adventures of Joseph Émïn, an Armenian. […], London:[s.n.],→OCLC,page358:[Y]ou muſt not expect him to go with you,inroading or making incurſions into Georgia; for he is an Armenian, true to his faith; and not a Georgian, falſe and diſtruſtful!
1841,J[ames] Fenimore Cooper, chapter IV, inThe Deerslayer: A Tale. […], 1st British edition, volume I, London:Richard Bentley, […],→OCLC,page100:[T]his is the first war that has befallen in my time, and no inimy has yetinroaded far enough into the Colony, to be reached by an arm even longer than mine.
1982,Kamala Markandaya [pseudonym; Kamala Purnaiya], chapter 26, inShalimar (A Cornelia & Michael Bessie Book), 1st U.S. edition, New York, N.Y.; Cambridge, Cambridgeshire:Harper & Row,→ISBN,page167:All about the dreaming sea-board, but tucked well out of sight, lurked those guardians of the environment—filters, slurpers, booms, vacuums, ultramodern aids to deal with the very latest imperishables. All ruinously expensive to mount, andinroading sizeably into profit margins, but part of the small print that nearly drove Boyle barmy.
2018, Pia Piiroinen,Me Habirut Mahabharata: Part 1, Helsinki, Finland; Norderstedt, Schleswig-Holstein, Germany: Books on Demand,→ISBN,page147:[…] Kvenland and Scythian Amazons[…] poisonedAnund and his troops when they wereinroading in Vinland or Kvenland.
- (transitive, obsolete) To make aninroad into (something).
- Synonym:invade
1639,Thomas Fuller, “The Character ofPeter the Hermite; His Soliciting the Holy Warre; the Councel at Clermont, and the Successe thereof”, inThe Historie of the Holy Warre, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: […] Thomas Buck, one of the printers to theUniversitie of Cambridge[and sold by John Williams, London],→OCLC, book I,page14:[Y]ea, the Saracens had lately waſted Italy, conquered Spain,inroded Aquitain, and poſſeſſed ſome iſlands in the mid-land-ſea.
1781, “Hundred of Depwade”, inHistory and Antiquities of the County of Norfolk, volumes II (Containing the Hundreds of Clavering, Depwade, Diss, and Earsham), Norwich, Norfolk: […] J. Crouse, for M. Booth, […],→OCLC, footnote *,page127:The kyngdom of Heven be Chriſt, 'teys reſembled to this noble kyng / With richesinroded mercy for to lern, and to have compaſſion. / One of another, after goddesFaſſyon.
1908,O. Henry [pseudonym; William Sydney Porter], “The Octopus Marooned”, inThe Gentle Grafter, New York, N.Y.:The McClure Company,→OCLC,page11:Andy was especialinroaded by self-esteem at our success, the rudiments of the scheme having originated in his own surmises and premonitions.
2012, Peter Tschmuck, “The Digital Music Revolution”, inCreativity and Innovation in the Music Industry, Heidelberg, Baden-Württemberg; New York, N.Y.:Springer,→DOI,→ISBN,page194:Furthermore, what initially was the main domain of record labels—the financing of music productions—was alsoinroaded by business outsiders.
2019, Everisto Benyera, “Borders and the Coloniality of Human Mobility: A View from Africa”, in Inocent Moyo, Christopher Changwe Nshimbi, editors,African Borders, Conflict, Regional and Continental Integration (Border Regions Series), Abingdon, Oxfordshire; New York, N.Y.:Routledge,→ISBN:[I]n June 2008, the Ras Doumeirah incident happened. Eritrean forcesinroaded the Ras Doumeirah principality, a strategic place at the narrowest crossing point to the Gulf of Aden at the strait of Babeal Mendeb.
to make advances or incursions
- ^“inroad,n.”, inOED Online
, Oxford:Oxford University Press, March 2021;“inroad,n.”, inLexico,Dictionary.com;Oxford University Press,2019–2022. - ^“inroad,v.”, inOED Online, Oxford:Oxford University Press,June 2021.
- Orinda,Dorian,ordain,Rodina,darion,ranoid,NORAID,Ardoin,donair,radion,dorian,draino
, Oxford:Oxford University Press, March 2021;“inroad,n.”, inLexico,Dictionary.com;Oxford University Press,2019–2022.