subway

English

A subway (noun sense 4):
A tunnel for pedestrians.

A subway (noun sense 1) station in Munich, Germany

Etymology

From sub- +‎ way.

Pronunciation

• (UK, US) IPA^(key): /ˈsʌbˌweɪ/, [ˈsʌbˌweɪ̯]

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ʌbweɪ

Noun

subway (plural subways)

1. (Canada, US, Scotland, South Africa) An underground railway, especially for mass transit of people in urban areas.
   • 2012, Andrew Martin, Underground Overground: A passenger's history of the Tube, Profile Books, →ISBN, page 98:

     In 1884 Greathead was part of a syndicate that obtained powers for another subway – 'The City of London & Southwark Subway'. The term 'subway' sounded more sophisticated than 'underground railway', which was associated with the sulphurous Metropolitan, and it would be adopted by New York for its own electric metro when work started on that in 1904.

2. (Canada, US, Scotland, South Africa) A train that runs on such an underground railway.
   • 1981 April 29, Russel Baker, “And Only Sixty Cents”, in The New York Times‎^[1]:

     Just before you leave, the subway comes. You get on. It stops at the next station.

3. (Canada, US) A rapid transit system, regardless of the elevation of its right of way; a metro system.
4. (British) An underground walkway, tunnel for pedestrians (called pedestrian underpass in US).
   • 1950 April, Timothy H. Cobb, “The Kenya-Uganda Railway”, in Railway Magazine, page 265:

     At Nairobi the mail waits an hour-and-a-half. The station has three long platforms, mostly covered in awnings, the island connected with the main platform (which is used by the mails in both directions) by a subway.

   • 2021 December 29, Stephen Roberts, “Stories and facts behind railway plaques: Didcot (1932)”, in RAIL, number 947, page 60:

     Heading beneath the tracks via the subway to the immediate north of the station takes us to the Didcot Railway Centre.

5. An underground route for pipes, sewers, etc.

Synonyms

(underground railway):

• metro; Métro (Paris)
• tube; Tube (London)
• underground, underground railway

(rapid transit system):

• rapid transit

(underground walkway):

• underpass

Translations

underground railway

• Afrikaans: moltrein, moltreinspoor
• Albanian: metro (sq) f
• Arabic: مِتْرُو m (mitrū), مِتْرُو m (metro)
• Armenian: մետրո (hy) (metro), մետրոպոլիտեն (hy) (metropoliten)
• Assyrian Neo-Aramaic: ܡܹܛܪܘܿ m (meṭro)
• Azerbaijani: metro (az)
• Belarusian: метро́ n (mjetró)
• Bengali: মেট্রো (bn) (meṭrō), আন্ডারগ্রাউন্ড (anḍargraunḍ), সাবওয়ে (śabōẇe), দ্রুত পরিবহণ (drut poribohon)
• Bulgarian: метро́ (bg) n (metró)
• Burmese: မြေအောက်မီးရထား (mreaukmi:ra.hta:)
• Catalan: metro (ca) m
• Chinese:

  Cantonese: 地鐵／地铁 (dei⁶ tit³)

  Eastern Min: 地鐵／地铁 (dê-tiék)

  Hakka: 捷運／捷运 (chhia̍p-yun)

  Hokkien: 地下鐵／地下铁 (zh-min-nan) (tē-hā-thih), 地鐵／地铁 (tē-thih)

  Mandarin: 地鐵／地铁 (zh) (dìtiě), 地下鐵路／地下铁路 (zh) (dìxià tiělù), 捷運／捷运 (zh) (jiéyùn) (Taiwan), 地下鐵／地下铁 (zh) (dìxiàtiě) (Taiwan)

  Wu: 地鐵／地铁 (⁶di-thiq)

• Czech: metro (cs) n, podzemní dráha f
• Danish: metro (da) c, undergrundsbane c, tunnelbane c
• Dutch: metro (nl) m, ondergrondse (nl) f
• Erzya: модалкс (modalks)
• Esperanto: metroo, S-fervojo, subtera fervojo
• Estonian: metroo (et), allmaaraudtee
• Finnish: metro (fi), maanalainen (fi)
• French: métro (fr) m, métropolitain (fr) m
• Georgian: მეტრო (ka) (meṭro), მეტროპოლიტენი (meṭroṗoliṭeni)
• German: U-Bahn (de) f, Metro (de) f, Untergrundbahn (de) f
• Greek: μετρό (el) (metró), υπόγειος (el) m (ypógeios)
• Hebrew: מֶטְרוֹ m (metró), רַכֶּבֶת תַּחְתִּית (he) f (rakévet takhtít)
• Hindi: भूमिगत रेल f (bhūmigat rel), मीट्रो (mīṭro), मेट्रो f (meṭro)
• Hungarian: metró (hu), földalatti (hu) (underground only)
• Icelandic: neðanjarðarlest f
• Ido: metropoliteno (io)
• Indonesian: kereta api bawah tanah
• Interlingua: metro
• Irish: traein faoi thalamh f
• Italian: metro f, metrò m or f, metropolitana (it) f
• Japanese: 地下鉄 (ja) (ちかてつ, chikatetsu), メトロ (ja) (metoro)
• Kazakh: метро (metro)
• Khmer: ម៉េត្រូ (meetrou), ផ្លូវក្រោមដី (phləw kraom dəy)
• Korean: 지하철(地下鐵) (ko) (jihacheol), 전철(電鐵) (ko) (jeoncheol), 도시철도(都市鐵道) (dosicheoldo), 메트로 (meteuro)
• Kyrgyz: метро (metro)
• Lao: ລົດໄຟໃຕ້ດິນ (lot fai tai din)
• Latin: ferrivia metropolitana f
• Latvian: metro
• Lithuanian: metro
• Macedonian: метро́ n (metró)
• Malay: kereta api bawah tanah
• Mongolian:

  Cyrillic: метро (mn) (metro)

• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: tunnelbane m, T-bane m, metro (no) c, undergrunnsbane m

  Nynorsk: tunnelbane m

• Pashto: مېترو f (metro)
• Persian:

  Iranian Persian: مِتْرو (fa) (metro)

• Polish: metro (pl) n
• Portuguese: metro (pt) m (Portugal), metrô (pt) m (Brazil)
• Romanian: metrou (ro) n, metro (ro) n, metropolitan (ro) n
• Russian: метро́ (ru) n (metró), метрополите́н (ru) m (metropolitɛ́n), подзе́мка (ru) n (podzémka)
• Scottish Gaelic: fo-rèile f
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: мѐтро̄ n

  Roman: mètrō (sh) n

• Spanish: metro (es) m, subte (es) m (Argentina)
• Swedish: tunnelbana (sv) c, T-bana (sv) c
• Tagalog: metro (tl)
• Tajik: метро (tg) (metro)
• Thai: รถไฟใต้ดิน (rót-fai-dtâi-din), เมโทร (mee-troo)
• Tibetan: ས་འོག་ལྕགས་ལམ (sa 'og lcags lam)
• Turkish: metro (tr)
• Turkmen: metro
• Ukrainian: метро́ n (metró)
• Urdu: میٹْرو (meṭro), مَیٹْرو (maiṭro), مِیٹْرو (mīṭro)
• Uyghur: مېترو (mëtro)
• Uzbek: metro (uz)
• Vietnamese: tàu điện ngầm (vi), mê-tơ-rô, metro (vi)
• Welsh: rheilffordd danddaearol f
• West Frisian: metro
• Yiddish: מעטראָ m (metro)

train of underground railway

• Afrikaans: moltrein
• Catalan: metro (ca) m
• Czech: metro (cs)
• Dutch: metro (nl) m, metrostel (nl) n
• Esperanto: metroo, S-trajno, subtrajno
• Finnish: metrojuna (fi)
• German: U-Bahn (de) f, Untergrundbahn (de) f
• Portuguese: (Brazil) metrô (pt) m, (Portugal) metro (pt) m
• Spanish: metro (es) m
• Vietnamese: tàu điện ngầm

underground walkway

• Arabic: نَفَق مُشَاة m (nafaq mušāh)
• Armenian: գետնանցում (hy) (getnancʻum)
• Belarusian: падзе́мны перахо́д m (padzjémny pjeraxód)
• Bulgarian: по́длез (bg) m (pódlez)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 地下道 (zh) (dìxiàdào)

• Czech: podchod m
• Danish: fodgængertunnel
• Dutch: voetgangerstunnel (nl) m, fietstunnel (nl) m
• Finnish: jalankulkutunneli, alikäytävä (fi)
• French: passage souterrain (fr) m, souterrain (fr) m
• Georgian: მიწისქვეშა გადასასვლელი (mic̣iskveša gadasasvleli)
• German: Unterführung (de) f
• Greek: υπόγεια διάβαση πεζών f (ypógeia diávasi pezón)
• Hungarian: aluljáró (hu)
• Interlingua: passage subterranee
• Irish: íosbhealach m
• Italian: sottopasso (it) m
• Japanese: 地下道 (ja) (ちかどう, chikadō)
• Korean: 지하도(地下道) (ko) (jihado), 토끼굴 (tokkigul)
• Macedonian: подземен премин m (podzemen premin), подвозник m (podvoznik)
• Malay: jalan bawah tanah, jabanah
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: gangtunnel m

  Nynorsk: gangtunnel m

• Persian:

  Iranian Persian: زیرْگُذَر (fa) (zirgozar)

• Polish: przejście podziemne (pl) n
• Portuguese: passagem subterrânea f
• Romanian: pasaj subteran n
• Russian: подзе́мный перехо́д m (podzémnyj perexód)
• Scottish Gaelic: fo-shlighe f, fo-rathad m
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: по̀тходнӣк m, по̀двожња̄к m

  Roman: pòthodnīk (sh) m, pòdvožnjāk (sh) m

• Slovak: podchod m
• Spanish: paso subterráneo m
• Swedish: kulvert (sv) c
• Ukrainian: підзе́мний перехі́д m (pidzémnyj perexíd)
• Vietnamese: hầm đi bộ

Verb

subway (third-person singular simple present subways, present participle subwaying, simple past and past participle subwayed)

1. (intransitive, US, informal) To travel by underground railway.
   • 2008 February 13, Melissa Clark, “From Paris, With Hustle”, in New York Times‎^[2]:

     I suppose I could have subwayed around town in search of froufrou French pastry shops.

Derived terms

• subway car
• Subway Cave
• subwayer
• subway series
• subway-surface
• subway tile
• that and a nickel will get you on the subway
• that and a token will get you on the subway

 

Anagrams

• busway

Spanish

Noun

subway m (plural subways or subway)

1. subway