trade route

noun

|Updated on: 7 Aug 2018

Definition of trade route

1 : one of the sea-lanes ordinarily used by merchant ships

2 : a route followed by traders (as in caravans)

Recent Examples of trade route from the Web

Like the stand-up-to-sitcom trade route that defined much of 20th century situation comedy, the Web creates opportunity for actors that the industrial machinery of mainstream show business might reject as too unconventional.

— robert lloyd, latimes.com, "'Liza On Demand' review: A tough job, but some YouTube star has to do it," 27 June 2018
China and India have long coexisted uncomfortably as neighbors with land border disputes in the Himalayas and some of China’s most critical trade routes passing close by Indian shores.

— krishna pokharel, WSJ, "Chinese, Indian Leaders Seek Harmony After a Fractious Year," 26 Apr. 2018
The endeavour benefits from being in the group of infrastructure projects that make up the $62bn China Pakistan Economic Corridor, a hoped-for trade route.

— The Economist, "Pakistan’s biggest private-sector firm bets on a fabled coal mine," 3 Feb. 2018
The third century saw civil war blossom all over the empire, sucking military resources away from other places they were needed (on, say, trade routes).

— josephine livingstone, The New Republic, "Rod Dreher’s Bad History," 3 July 2018
Some 4700 years ago, a caravan of Egyptian herders and their donkeys followed a trade route through the foothills of central Israel, destined for the ancient city-state of Tell es-Safi/Gath.

— michael price, Science | AAAS, "This ancient skeleton suggests humans were riding donkeys nearly 5000 years ago," 16 May 2018
The main border crossing with Jordan has been closed since insurgents seized the Syrian side in 2015, shutting off vital trade routes linking Jordan, Syria and Lebanon.

— Washington Post, "Rebels in Syria’s south brace for onslaught, fear wider war," 19 Apr. 2018
Those long, narrow terracotta vessels carried olive oil and wine along trade routes between North Africa and the Roman Empire, where Albania, then Illyria, was a crossroad.

— llazar semini, Fox News, "Archaeologists urge Albania to protect underwater heritage," 4 July 2018
Here’s the logic: the trade war would end up disrupting supply chains with the U.S., thereby boosting the fortunes of China’s Belt and Road initiative, which is all about investing in trade routes in and out of China.

— alan murray, Fortune, "Amazon Effect, Novartis Spin-Off, California's GDPR-Lite: CEO Daily for June 29, 2018," 29 June 2018

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'trade route.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.