transportation
(trɑːnspɔəˈteɪʃən, træns-)
[n. of action f. transport v. + -ation. Cf. L. (post-Aug.) transportātiōn-em transmigration, and F. transportation (1519 in Hatz.-Darm.).]
1. a. The action or process of transporting; conveyance (of things or persons) from one place to another.
Much used in 17th c. down to c 1660; afterwards gradually given up for transport, prob. to avoid association with penal transportation, sense 2 c.
| 1540 Act 32 Hen. VIII, c. 14 §2 For the fraight transportation conveyaunce or cariage of anny warres. a 1600 in Hakluyt Voy. III. 174 By reason of the transportation of raw wooll of late dayes more excessiuely then in times past. 1607 Hieron Wks. I. 371 Looke how the case stood with their transportation out of ægypt into Canaan. 1615 G. Sandys Trav. 26 Here is a Ferry for transportation into Asia. a 1656 Ussher Ann. vi. (1658) 331 Finding no ships there, for his transportation, he divided his army. 1679–88 Secr. Serv. Moneys Chas. & Jas. (Camden) 16 To the Bishop of London, for transportac'on of three Chaplains to the Leward Islands..60 0 0. 1707 E. Chamberlayne Pres. St. Eng. i. vii. (ed. 22) 63 Upon the Three Articles of Exportation, Transportation or Re-exportation, and Importation, no Kingdom or State in the World can any ways match us. 1827 H. Steuart Planter's G. (1828) 264 It must make the Tree..more troublesome to be balanced during the transportation. 1855 Prescott Hist. Philip II, i. 118 The transportation of the troops was going..on. 1890 Wisconsin Hist. Soc. Prospectus, Upon any gift to the Society, transportation will be cheerfully paid. |
b. Geol. The movement of land-waste by rivers, ocean-currents, glaciers, wind, etc.
| 1830 Lyell Princ. Geol. I. 81 A geologist, who..sees the decomposition of rocks, and the transportation of matter by rivers to the sea. 1877 Le Conte Elem. Geol. iii. v. (1879) 516 The general direction of the scorings corresponds with that of transportation of the bowlders. |
2. spec. a. Sc. Ch. The translation of a minister from one charge to another.
| 1562 in Row Hist. Kirk (Wodrow Soc.) 24 Transportation declared lawfull where there is reason for it. 1663 Blair Autobiog. ii. (1848) 46 That assembly sets a note upon the act of my transportation. 1717 T. Boston in A. Thomson Life (1895) 129 In a time wherein there is so little need of transportations. |
b. Sc. Eccl. Law. transportation of a church, removal of the site of the church to a different part of the parish.
| 1838 W. Bell Dict. Law Scot. s.v. Transportation of Churches, The form of applying for transportation is by a summons raised before the Teind Court, concluding for authority to transport, and to have the new church declared the regular parish church. |
c. Removal or banishment, as of a criminal to a penal settlement; deportation.
| 1669 in 10th Rep. Hist. MSS. Comm. App. v. 95 If..the said Rice Havard [a condemned felon] doe give in security for his transportacion as before mentioned. 1678 Butler Hud. iii. ii. 197 Neither Chains, nor Transportation, Proscription, Sale, nor Confiscation. 1727 Gay Begg. Op. i. xiii, Were you sentenc'd to Transportation? 1879 M{supc}Carthy Own Times II. xviii. 33 The sentence of death was changed into one of transportation for life. |
3. transf. Means of transport or conveyance. U.S.
| 1853 J. L. McConnel Western Characters 163 He furnished his own ‘transportation’, and selected his own encampment. 1861 Times 29 July, We captured..all the enemy's camp equipage and transportation. 1869 T. W. Higginson Army Life (1870) 236 There was no transportation to take us. At last, a boat was notified. 1890 Century Mag. Feb. 564/1 A lot of miscellaneous transportation, composed of riding horses, ambulances, and other vehicles. 1894 Outing (U.S.) XXIV. 234/2 Transportation is furnished for the horses of mounted officers. |
b. A ticket or pass for travelling by a public conveyance. U.S.
| 1909 in Cent. Dict. Suppl. 1911 in Webster. |
† 4. Transport (of feeling), rapture, ecstasy. Obs.
| 1617 Collins Def. Bp. Ely ii. vii. 286 Not onely in extasie and transportation..but in the daily forme of prayer. 1660 Stanley Hist. Philos. ix. (1701) 373/1 A soul disturbed with anger or pleasure, or any other unbefitting transportation. 1690 Luttrell Brief Rel. (1857) II. 68 Which those poor people received with great transportations of joy. |
5. attrib., mostly in sense 1, as transportation agent, transportation company, transportation money, transportation rate, transportation sentence, transportation system, transportation-wagon, etc.
| 1573–4 Privy Council Acts (1894) VIII. 212 To aunswer the conduct, transportacion money and wages acording to her Majesties usuall entertainement. 1819 J. A. Quitman in J. F. H. Claiborne Life J. A. Quitman (1860) I. 36, I went to the agent of a train of transportation-wagons. 1825 in T. L. McKenney Memoirs (1846) I. 299, I was appointed transportation agent for the United States at St. Louis. 1844 Emerson Lect., Yng. American Wks. (Bohn) II. 303 The private transportation-shop. 1866 ‘Mark Twain’ Lett. from Hawaii (1967) 274 Her transportation wagons will be the freight cars of the Pacific Railroad. 1883 G. B. Goode Fish. Indust. U.S. 67 (Fish. Exhib. Publ.) The construction of refrigerating transportation cars. 1888 Bryce Amer. Commw. II. App. 670 All railroad, canal, and other transportation companies are declared to be common carriers. 1891 Athenæum 26 Dec. 862/3 There is not much in it about Siberia,..and the work is, in fact, one on the Russian transportation system. 1897 P. Warung Tales Old Regime 148 Her home record was bad, and most likely her transportation-sentence was life. |
Hence transporˈtational a., of, belonging or pertaining to transportation; transporˈtationist, one who favours the transportation of criminals.
| 1888 J. T. Gulick in Linn. Soc. Jrnl., Zool. XX. 230 Transportational segregation, caused by activities in the environment that distribute the organism in different districts. 1840 Gen. P. Thompson Exerc. (1842) V. 26 On the whole, we seem to have flurried the transportationists. |