cruise v [phonetics unavailable]. Cp OED ~ v b transf (1698-).
   1 To go around on foot; to look for game or some object.
   [1819] 1915 HOWLEY 108 Should I be appointed to cruise the summer for them ... I have not the least doubt but that I shall, through the medium of the woman I now have, be enabled to open an intercourse with [the indians]. 1894 Evening Herald 13 Dec I have been what people calls cruising about here. I have been visiting some of my friends ... with my snow-shoes and axe. 1907 WALLACE 88 Th' Nascaupees are back here a bit t' th' west'ard. I saw some of 'em one day when I was cruisin' that way an' I made tracks back fer I didn't want t' die so quick. 1933 GREENE xv Cruising the Floe—denotes the search for the seals on foot, often over many miles of ice. T 58/64-64 This morning I took my two dogs, and lunch, went in about three miles, four miles, and cruised round a bit, and I got shapes of a keel for a boat.
   2 (a) Of animals, to wander about in a particular area; (b) of marine creatures, to swim.
   [1775] 1792 CARTWRIGHT ii, 126 Great numbers of foxes had cruised about last night; they struck up three traps. which is the first time I had been certain of their touching the baits. T 58/64-64 [The whale] wasn't used to cold water. Now he cruised round here all the summer. 1979 TIZZARD 310 If the salmon saw the net and cruised along by it he would surely be caught by the [hawk].
   3 To float timber by water or transport it on vessels; to carry supplies.
   P 54-63 [This firm was] sending logging crews into the wooded parts of the bays ... and cutting timber. Some of it would be'cruised' down to the firm's place of business in the spring. T 141/2-65² They'd cruise up—go up and bring down their own supplies. T 141/67-65² If you was up the bay and cut some wood for the winter to cruise down in the spring, you got to make another trip. T 175/6-65 Bulk 'em up on the flake perhaps in the spring. He'd cruise them home just the same as he would his firewood. 1979 Salt Water, Fresh Water 55 Now when the ice would move off in March or April, we'd launch out the boat, get the engine in, steam up there nine or ten miles, and load the stuff aboard the boat and bring it back. We call this cruising the wood back.

Go Back