Adjacent Words

Expedition definitions

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Webster's 1828 Dictionary

EXPEDI'TION, n. [L. expeditio.] Haste; speed; quickness; dispatch. The mail is conveyed with expedition.
1. The march of an army, or the voyage of a fleet, to a distant place, for hostile purposes; as the expedition of the French to Egypt; the expedition of Xerxes into Greece.
2. Any enterprize, undertaking or attempt by a number of persons; or the collective body which undertakes. We say, our government sent an expedition to the Pacific; the expedition has arrived.

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

n
1: a military campaign designed to achieve a specific objective in a foreign country [syn: expedition, military expedition, hostile expedition]
2: an organized group of people undertaking a journey for a particular purpose; "an expedition was sent to explore Mars"
3: a journey organized for a particular purpose
4: a journey taken for pleasure; "many summer excursions to the shore"; "it was merely a pleasure trip"; "after cautious sashays into the field" [syn: excursion, jaunt, outing, junket, pleasure trip, expedition, sashay]
5: the property of being prompt and efficient; "it was done with dispatch" [syn: dispatch, despatch, expedition, expeditiousness]

Merriam Webster's

noun Date: 15th century 1. a. a journey or excursion undertaken for a specific purpose b. the group of persons making such a journey 2. efficient promptness ; speed 3. a sending or setting forth Synonyms: see haste • expeditioner noun

U.S. Military Dictionary

A military operation conducted by an armed force to accomplish a specific objective in a foreign country. (JP 3-0)

Oxford Reference Dictionary

n. 1 a journey or voyage for a particular purpose, esp. exploration, scientific research, or war. 2 the personnel or ships etc. undertaking this. 3 promptness, speed. Derivatives: expeditionist n. Etymology: ME f. OF f. L expeditio -onis (as EXPEDITE)

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Expedition Ex`pe*di"tion, n. [L. expeditio: cf.F. exp['e]dition.] 1. The quality of being expedite; efficient promptness; haste; dispatch; speed; quickness; as to carry the mail with expedition. With winged expedition Swift as the lightning glance. ? 2. A sending forth or setting forth the execution of some object of consequence; progress. Putting it straight in expedition. ? 3. An important enterprise, implying a change of place; especially, a warlike enterprise; a march or a voyage with martial intentions; an excursion by a body of persons for a valuable end; as, a military, naval, exploring, or scientific expedition; also, the body of persons making such excursion. The expedition miserably failed. --Prescott. Narrative of the exploring expedition to the Rocky Mountains. --J. C. Fremont.

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

(expeditions) 1. An expedition is an organized journey that is made for a particular purpose such as exploration. ...Byrd's 1928 expedition to Antarctica. N-COUNT: oft N to n 2. You can refer to a group of people who are going on an expedition as an expedition. Forty-three members of the expedition were killed. N-COUNT 3. An expedition is a short journey or trip that you make for pleasure. ...a fishing expedition. = trip N-COUNT

Soule's Dictionary of English Synonyms

n. 1. Haste, speed, despatch, celerity, quickness, promptness, alacrity, alertness. 2. Enterprise, undertaking. 3. March or voyage, hostile undertaking.

Moby Thesaurus

advance, advancement, adventure, agility, air speed, alacrity, briskness, campaign, celerity, circuit, clarification, course, crusade, decisiveness, dispatch, drive, easing, emprise, enterprise, excursion, expediting, expeditiousness, exploration, facilitation, fastness, flight, flit, flurry, forwarding, furtherance, goodwill, grand tour, ground speed, haste, hastening, helping along, holy war, hurry, hustle, immediacy, immediateness, instantaneousness, jaunt, jihad, journey, junket, knots, lightning speed, miles per hour, mission, nimbleness, outing, package tour, peregrination, peregrinations, pilgrimage, pleasure trip, precipitation, preferential treatment, progress, promotion, promptitude, promptness, punctuality, punctualness, quest, quickening, quickness, rapidity, readiness, round pace, round trip, rpm, rubberneck tour, run, rush, rushing, rustle, safari, sally, sharpness, shoot, simplification, simplifying, smartness, smoothing, snappiness, special treatment, speed, speediness, speeding, spryness, stalk, streamlining, summariness, swift rate, swiftness, tour, travels, trek, trip, turn, undertaking, velocity, voyage, war