TOUR

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does tour mean? 

• TOUR (noun)
  The noun TOUR has 3 senses:

1. a journey or route all the way around a particular place or area

2. a time period for working (after which you will be relieved by someone else)

3. a period of time spent in military service

  Familiarity information: TOUR used as a noun is uncommon.

• TOUR (verb)
  The verb TOUR has 1 sense:

1. make a tour of a certain place

  Familiarity information: TOUR used as a verb is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• TOUR (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A journey or route all the way around a particular place or area

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Synonyms:

circuit; tour

Context example:

a ten-day coach circuit of the island

Hypernyms ("tour" is a kind of...):

journey; journeying (the act of traveling from one place to another)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "tour"):

walkabout (a walking trip or tour)

grand tour (a sightseeing tour of a building or institution)

grand tour (an extended cultural tour of Europe taken by wealthy young Englishmen (especially in the 18th century) as part of their education)

itineration (journeying from place to place preaching or lecturing; a preaching tour or lecturing tour)

package holiday; package tour (a tour arranged by a travel agent; transportation and food and lodging are all provided at an inclusive price)

pub crawl (a tour of bars or public houses (usually taking one drink at each stop))

whistle-stop tour (a tour by a candidate as part of a political campaign in which a series of small towns are visited)

Derivation:

tour (make a tour of a certain place)

tourist (someone who travels for pleasure)

Sense 2

Meaning:

A time period for working (after which you will be relieved by someone else)

Classified under:

Nouns denoting time and temporal relations

Synonyms:

go; spell; tour; turn

Context example:

a spell of work

Hypernyms ("tour" is a kind of...):

duty period; shift; work shift (the time period during which you are at work)

Sense 3

Meaning:

A period of time spent in military service

Classified under:

Nouns denoting time and temporal relations

Synonyms:

duty tour; enlistment; hitch; term of enlistment; tour; tour of duty

Hypernyms ("tour" is a kind of...):

period; period of time; time period (an amount of time)

• TOUR (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they tour    ... he / she / it tours   
Past simple: toured   
Past participle: toured   
-ing form: touring   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Make a tour of a certain place

Classified under:

Verbs of walking, flying, swimming

Context example:

We toured the Provence this summer

Hypernyms (to "tour" is one way to...):

journey; travel (undertake a journey or trip)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "tour"):

take the road (give theatrical performances while traveling from town to town)

see; visit (go to see a place, as for entertainment)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s
Somebody ----s something

Derivation:

tour (a journey or route all the way around a particular place or area)

tourer; tourist (someone who travels for pleasure)

 Context examples 

With some difficulty, I got him to make the tour of the house.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

You had quality time for romance last month, thanks to Mars’ tour through your romantic fifth house.

(AstrologyZone.com, by Susan Miller)

Everything is pretty well fixed now, I think, to welcome the Count on his return from his tour.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

Accordingly, I took the jacket off, that I might learn to do without it; and carrying it under my arm, began a tour of inspection of the various slop-shops.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

“I have been making the tour of the park,” he replied, “as I generally do every year, and intend to close it with a call at the Parsonage. Are you going much farther?”

(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)

Eight and a half years into its grand tour of the solar system, NASA's Voyager 2 spacecraft was ready for another encounter.

(The ice giant Uranus appears to be losing a bit of its atmosphere to space, NASA)

We had strict injunctions, however, on no account to pass the falls of Reichenbach, which are about half-way up the hill, without making a small détour to see them.

(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

It is good practice for me, and with my sketchbook will give you a better idea of my tour than these scribbles.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

“I shall never be easy till I have seen some of these places. You will have my sketches, some time or other, to look at—or my tour to read—or my poem. I shall do something to expose myself.”

(Emma, by Jane Austen)

During the two years that had elapsed previous to their marriage my father had gradually relinquished all his public functions; and immediately after their union they sought the pleasant climate of Italy, and the change of scene and interest attendant on a tour through that land of wonders, as a restorative for her weakened frame.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)