service road
5
3.2
- noun
- /ˈsɜrvɪs roʊd/
- The bakery is located just off the service road that runs parallel to the highway.
- service road, Interstate
- airport service road
- Forest service road
Examples
-
When he arrived, boys in long gray shorts and singlets were skateboarding on the concrete service road between her house and the beach.
Fiction book (2000) -
Coming back the other way along a service road, Starling slows to consider a chain-link gate stretched across a muddy road, then continues on.
Fiction book (2001) -
Take the service road now.
-
If you make it to the service road, I'll be waiting.
-
A service road provides access to the area, which is covered with a concrete pad.
Academic text (1998) -
We ended up at the Waffle House on a service road next to the interstate.
Fiction book (1994) -
A sedan travels down a service road and stops nearby.
Fiction book (2000) -
Main roads all have roadblocks, but there's an old service road that nobody uses anymore.
-
I hike up the service road to the barricade, again in foot-deep snow.
Blog text (5) -
Starling's Mustang creeps along the service road without the aid of its headlights.
Fiction book (2001)
Synonyms
2
4.0
A local street beside a highway that gives access to shops and houses
2
1.6
A street that mainly lets people reach nearby homes and shops rather than pass through
How Big
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning is directly compositional: 'service' (to provide access/serve) modifies 'road' (a constructed route), so a learner who knows both words can infer it is a road that provides access to properties or businesses. This attributive pattern is regular and cross-linguistically common, making the term immediately understandable to a B1 learner.
Etymology
Service road comes from the simple picture of a small road whose service is to run beside a larger main road and reach nearby houses and shops. So it means 'a local road' that gives 'access' to buildings next to a highway.