Library / English Dictionary

TOUR

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 I. (noun) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

A journey or route all the way around a particular place or area

Example:

a ten-day coach circuit of the island

Synonyms:

circuit; tour

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Hypernyms ("tour" is a kind of...):

journey; journeying (the act of traveling from one place to another)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "tour"):

walkabout (a walking trip or tour)

grand tour (a sightseeing tour of a building or institution)

grand tour (an extended cultural tour of Europe taken by wealthy young Englishmen (especially in the 18th century) as part of their education)

itineration (journeying from place to place preaching or lecturing; a preaching tour or lecturing tour)

package holiday; package tour (a tour arranged by a travel agent; transportation and food and lodging are all provided at an inclusive price)

pub crawl (a tour of bars or public houses (usually taking one drink at each stop))

whistle-stop tour (a tour by a candidate as part of a political campaign in which a series of small towns are visited)

Derivation:

tour (make a tour of a certain place)

tourist (someone who travels for pleasure)

Sense 2

Meaning:

A time period for working (after which you will be relieved by someone else)

Example:

a spell of work

Synonyms:

go; spell; tour; turn

Classified under:

Nouns denoting time and temporal relations

Hypernyms ("tour" is a kind of...):

duty period; shift; work shift (the time period during which you are at work)

Sense 3

Meaning:

A period of time spent in military service

Synonyms:

duty tour; enlistment; hitch; term of enlistment; tour; tour of duty

Classified under:

Nouns denoting time and temporal relations

Hypernyms ("tour" is a kind of...):

period; period of time; time period (an amount of time)

 II. (verb) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Make a tour of a certain place

Example:

We toured the Provence this summer

Classified under:

Verbs of walking, flying, swimming

Hypernyms (to "tour" is one way to...):

journey; travel (undertake a journey or trip)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "tour"):

take the road (give theatrical performances while traveling from town to town)

see; visit (go to see a place, as for entertainment)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s
Somebody ----s something

Derivation:

tour (a journey or route all the way around a particular place or area)

tourer; tourist (someone who travels for pleasure)

Credits

 Context examples: 

Cassini is ending its 13-year tour of the Saturn system with an intentional plunge into the planet to ensure Saturn's moons - in particular Enceladus, with its subsurface ocean and signs of hydrothermal activity - remain pristine for future exploration.

(Cassini Spacecraft Makes Its Final Approach to Saturn, NASA)

Cassini finished its tour of the Saturn system with its Grand Finale, capped by Friday's intentional plunge into the planet to ensure Saturn's moons – particularly Enceladus, with its subsurface ocean and signs of hydrothermal activity – remain pristine for future exploration.

(Cassini Spacecraft Ends Its Historic Exploration of Saturn, NASA)

So, for example, if I should say, in a letter to a friend, ‘Our brother Tom has just got the piles,’ a skilful decipherer would discover, that the same letters which compose that sentence, may be analysed into the following words, ‘Resist —, a plot is brought home—The tour.’ And this is the anagrammatic method.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

Meanwhile, Venus, Mars’ lover, will be in fire-sign Aries, touring your fifth house of truelove from February 7 to March 4.

(AstrologyZone.com, by Susan Miller)

A pearl necklace I had given you lay untouched in its little casket; your trunks were left corded and locked as they had been prepared for the bridal tour.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

Every object in the next day's journey was new and interesting to Elizabeth; and her spirits were in a state of enjoyment; for she had seen her sister looking so well as to banish all fear for her health, and the prospect of her northern tour was a constant source of delight.

(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)

But I was in no mood to laugh and talk with strangers or enter into their feelings or plans with the good humour expected from a guest; and accordingly I told Clerval that I wished to make the tour of Scotland alone.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

A thrilling epoch in the exploration of our solar system came to a close today, as NASA's Cassini spacecraft made a fateful plunge into the atmosphere of Saturn, ending its 13-year tour of the ringed planet.

(Cassini Spacecraft Ends Its Historic Exploration of Saturn, NASA)

When she came down, looking like a pretty Quakeress in her dove-colored suit and straw bonnet tied with white, they all gathered about her to say 'good-by', as tenderly as if she had been going to make the grand tour.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

They had determined that their marriage ought to be concluded while John and Isabella were still at Hartfield, to allow them the fortnight's absence in a tour to the seaside, which was the plan.

(Emma, by Jane Austen)