expedition
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /ɛkspəˈdɪʃən/
rhymes: -ɪʃən
Forms: form: expeditions
Etymology: From Middle French expédition, and its source, Latin expeditio.
Senses: examples: text: My Lord the great Commander of the worlde, […]
Hath now in armes ten thouſand Ianiſaries, […]
And for the expedition of this war,
If he thinke good, can from his garriſons,
UUithdraw as many more to follow him.
ref: c. 1587–1588 (date written), [Christopher Marlowe], Tamburlaine the Great. […] The First Part […], 2nd edition, part 1, London: […] [R. Robinson for] Richard Iones, […], published 1592, →OCLC; reprinted as Tamburlaine the Great (A Scolar Press Facsimile), Menston, Yorkshire; London: Scolar Press, 1973, →ISBN, Act III, scene iii:
glosses: The act of expediting something; prompt execution.
examples: text: Once established in their capital at Nanking, occupied March, 1853, and renamed “Heavenly Capital” (T’ien-ching), the Taipings sent out an expedition to take Peking which again made striking gains initially, but was eventually slowed, isolated, and defeated.
ref: 1960, “The Heavenly Kingdom of the Taipings”, in Wm. Theodore de Bary, Wing-tsit Chan, Chester Tan, compilers, Sources of Chinese Tradition, volume II, New York; London: Columbia University Press, →OCLC, pages 21–22:
glosses: A military journey; an enterprise against some enemy or into enemy territory.
examples: text: one of them began to come nearer our boat than at first I expected; but I lay ready for him, for I had loaded my gun with all possible expedition […].
ref: 1719 May 6 (Gregorian calendar), [Daniel Defoe], The Life and Strange Surprizing Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, […], London: […] W[illiam] Taylor […], →OCLC:
text: he presently exerted his utmost agility, and with surprizing expedition ascended the hill.
ref: 1749, Henry Fielding, Tom Jones, Folio Society, published 1973, page 331:
text: He saw the same Turnkey unfetter a man / With but little expedition, / Which put him in mind of the long debate / On the Slave-trade abolition.
ref: 1834 [1799], Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Robert Southey, “The Devil's Thoughts”, in The Poetical Works of S. T. Coleridge, volume II, London: W. Pickering, page 86:
text: The photographer had photographed, the doctor had certified life extinct, the pathologist had inspected the body in situ as a prelude to conducting his autopsy – all with an expedition quite contrary to the proper pace of things, merely in order to clear the way for the visiting irregular, as the Deputy Assistant Commissioner (Crime and Ops) had liked to call him.
ref: 1979, John Le Carré, Smiley's People, Folio Society, published 2010, page 33:
glosses: The quality of being expedite; speed, quickness.
topics: government
military
politics
war
glosses: An important or long journey, for example a march or a voyage
examples: text: a naval expedition
text: a scientific expedition
text: an expedition across the Alps
glosses: A trip, especially a long one, made by a person or a group of people for a specific purpose
glosses: The group of people making such excursion.
glosses: The process or activities of performing expediter tasks.
Derived terms: DX-pedition
DXpedition
expeditionary
expeditionist
fishing expedition
sexpedition
Related terms: excursion
exploration
field trip