Definition of Traffic

1. Noun. The aggregation of things (pedestrians or vehicles) coming and going in a particular locality during a specified period of time.


2. Verb. Deal illegally. "Traffic drugs"
Category relationships: Crime, Criminal Offence, Criminal Offense, Law-breaking, Offence, Offense
Generic synonyms: Merchandise, Trade

3. Noun. Buying and selling; especially illicit trade.

4. Verb. Trade or deal a commodity. "They trafficked with us for gold"
Category relationships: Commerce, Commercialism, Mercantilism
Generic synonyms: Merchandise, Trade
Derivative terms: Trafficker

5. Noun. The amount of activity over a communication system during a given period of time. "Traffic on the internet is lightest during the night"
Generic synonyms: Communicating, Communication

6. Noun. Social or verbal interchange (usually followed by 'with').
Exact synonyms: Dealings
Generic synonyms: Give-and-take, Interchange, Reciprocation
Specialized synonyms: Relation
Derivative terms: Deal

Definition of Traffic

1. v. i. To pass goods and commodities from one person to another for an equivalent in goods or money; to buy or sell goods; to barter; to trade.

2. v. t. To exchange in traffic; to effect by a bargain or for a consideration.

3. n. Commerce, either by barter or by buying and selling; interchange of goods and commodities; trade.

Definition of Traffic

1. Noun. Pedestrians or vehicles on roads, or the flux or passage thereof. ¹

2. Noun. Commercial transportation or exchange of goods, or the movement of passengers or people. ¹

3. Noun. Illegal trade or exchange of goods, often drugs. ¹

4. Noun. Exchange or flux of information, messages or data, as in a computer or telephone network. ¹

5. Verb. (intransitive) To pass goods and commodities from one person to another for an equivalent in goods or money; to buy or sell goods; to barter; to trade. ¹

6. Verb. (intransitive) To trade meanly or mercenarily; to bargain. ¹

7. Verb. (transitive) To exchange in traffic; to effect by a bargain or for a consideration. ¹

¹ Source: wiktionary.com

Definition of Traffic

1. to engage in buying and selling [v -FICKED, -FICKING, -FICS]

Medical Definition of Traffic

1. 1. Commerce, either by barter or by buying and selling; interchange of goods and commodities; trade. "A merchant of great traffic through the world." (Shak) "The traffic in honors, places, and pardons." (Macaulay) This word, like trade, comprehends every species of dealing in the exchange or passing of goods or merchandise from hand to hand for an equivalent, unless the business of relating may be excepted. It signifies appropriately foreign trade, but is not limited to that. 2. Commodities of the market. "You 'll see a draggled damsel From Billingsgate her fishy traffic bear." (Gay) 3. The business done upon a railway, steamboat line, etc, with reference to the number of passengers or the amount of freight carried. Traffic return, a periodical statement of the receipts for goods and passengers, as on a railway line. Traffic taker, a computer of the returns of traffic on a railway, steamboat line, etc. Origin: Cf. F. Trafic, It. Traffico, Sp. Trafico, trafago, Pg. Trafego, LL. Traficum, trafica. See Traffic. 1. To pass goods and commodities from one person to another for an equivalent in goods or money; to buy or sell goods; to barter; to trade. 2. To trade meanly or mercenarily; to bargain. Origin: F. Trafiquer; cf. It. Trafficare, Sp. Traficar, trafagar, Pg. Traficar, trafegar, trafeguear, LL. Traficare; of uncertain origin, perhaps fr. L. Trans across, over + -ficare to make (see -fy, and cf. G. Ubermachen to transmit, send over, e. G, money, wares); or cf. Pg. Trasfegar to pour out from one vessel into another, OPg. Also, to traffic, perhaps fr. (assumed) LL. Vicare to exchange, from L. Vicis change (cf. Vicar). Source: Websters Dictionary (01 Mar 1998)

Lexicographical Neighbors of Traffic

traducer
traducers
traduces
traducian
traducianism
traducians
traducible
traducing
traducingly
traduct
traduction
traductive
traductology
traducts
trafe
traffic (current term)
traffic-light
traffic-lights
traffic beam
traffic beams
traffic boy
traffic boys
traffic calming
traffic calmings
traffic circle
traffic circles
traffic cone
traffic cones
traffic control
traffic cop

Literary usage of Traffic

Below you will find example usage of this term as found in modern and/or classical literature:

1. Report by Illinois Highway Commission (1913)
"ROAD traffic CENSUS. The necessity for studying traffic conditions is ... The first systematic traffic census on country roads was undertaken by the ..."

2. The Encyclopedia Americana: A Library of Universal Knowledge (1919)
"The sea-going traffic at German ports has been developed much more rapidly than has the same traffic elsewhere in Europe, as will be seen from a comparison ..."

3. The Encyclopedia Americana: A Library of Universal Knowledge (1919)
"The sea-going traffic at German ports has been developed much more rapidly than has the same traffic elsewhere in Europe, as will be seen from a comparison ..."

4. Proceedings of the Annual Meeting (1905)
"So when Congress two years ago gave me $25000, with instructions to suppress the liquor traffic, and to spend $15000 of the money in the Indian Territory ..."

5. Oecd Economic Surveys: United Kingdom by OECD. (2005)
"Data on road lengths, traffic and costs is interpolated for some earlier periods. ... 2001 2004b), projects an increase in road traffic from 2000 levels of ..."

6. Environmental Performance Reviews by Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, United Nations Economic Commission for Europe. Committee on Environmental Policy (2006)
"3.5 traffic management in urban areas Efforts have been made to reduce reliance on private cars in urban areas and to promote the supply of public ..."

7. Chronological History of the West Indies by Thomas Southey (1827)
"... for the last time on the question of the slave trade, when they unanimously agreed to publish the following denunciation of that traffic. " Declaration. ..."

8. Supreme Court Reporter by Robert Desty, United States Supreme Court, West Publishing Company (1903)
"199. of the Constitution, and not prohibited by it, as will drive that traffic out of commerce among the states? If it be said that the act of 1895 is ..."

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