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expedition

ek-spuh-DISH-uhn/ɛkspəˈdɪʃən/

Pluralexpeditions

Verbexpeditions, expeditioning, expeditioned

8 meanings of expedition

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  1. 1
    nouncountable
    A trip, especially a long one, that a person or group makes for a particular purpose.

    The research team mounted an expedition to map the river's source.

    Funding for the Antarctic expedition came from several universities.

    Similarjourney, trip, trek, voyage, mission

    Note

    The everyday sense, and its adjectives usually name the purpose or the means: a scientific expedition, a naval expedition. The route follows with a preposition, as in an expedition across the Alps or to a river's source. Purpose is what sets it apart from a plain trip or journey. A long drive is not an expedition unless it is going somewhere to do something.

  2. 2
    nouncountable
    A military journey or campaign undertaken against an enemy or into enemy territory.

    The general led an expedition deep into hostile territory.

    Their naval expedition aimed to capture the coastal fortress.

    Similarcampaign, mission, foray, incursion, sortie

  3. 3
    nouncollectivecountable
    The group of people who together make a long or important journey.

    The expedition celebrated when they finally reached the summit.

    A local guide joined the expedition at the river crossing.

    Similarparty, team, group, company, crew

    Note

    The word moves here from the journey to the people on it, and it behaves as a collective noun. Treat the group as one body and it takes a singular verb (the expedition was turned back). Think of its members and plural pronouns follow naturally (the expedition celebrated when they reached the summit). Whichever you choose, keep it consistent within a sentence.

  4. 4
    nouncountable
    An important or long journey, such as a military march or a sea voyage.

    The naval expedition sailed for three months before reaching the islands.

    Parliament funded an expedition to secure the northern frontier.

    Similarjourney, voyage, trek, mission, march

    Note

    Military and political writing uses the word for the movement itself, such as the march overland or the voyage out. What counts is the journey's length and importance, not a battle at the end of it. That is the line between this sense and the campaign against an enemy: an expedition here need not be aimed at a foe. The collocations follow the means of travel, as in a naval expedition.

  5. 5
    noununcountable
    The work or activities involved in expediting: ensuring that tasks, orders, or shipments are completed promptly.

    Careful expedition of the shipments prevented costly delays.

    The manager credited the project's success to constant expedition of supplier orders.

    Similaracceleration, hastening

    Oppositedelay

  6. 6
    verbintransitive
    To take part in an expedition or other trip; more generally, to travel.

    Between conference sessions, the visiting delegates expeditioned around the city's museums and monuments.

    Climbers who expedition in the Himalayas often spend months away from their families.

    Similartravel, trek, journey, tour, explore

    Note

    A verb made from the noun, and it still reads that way. It takes no object: people expedition around a city or through a mountain range, but never expedition a place. Greg Child's Thin Air (1998) writes of "the schizophrenia of expeditioning." Visitors in Sewage and Industrial Wastes Engineering (1950) "expeditioned around the famous spots in Washington." The bare present can sound forced, and go on an expedition is the smoother choice.

Less common meanings

  1. 7
    nounobsoleteuncountable
    The act of expediting something; carrying it out promptly.
    Note

    Here the word still means getting a thing done, not going anywhere. In Christopher Marlowe's Tamburlaine the Great, troops are gathered "for the expedition of this war," that is, to push the war forward without delay. Every sense of the word comes through Middle French expédition from Latin expeditio. Modern English now gives this job to the verb expedite, so using expedition this way reads as a deliberate period touch.

  2. 8
    nounarchaicuncountable
    Speed and promptness in action; the quality of getting something done quickly.

    The army marched with remarkable expedition toward the capital.

    he presently exerted his utmost agility, and with surprizing expedition ascended the hill.
    1749, Henry Fielding, Tom Jones
    Note

    The speed sense survives mostly in one construction: with, then a word of degree, then expedition. Defoe has "with all possible expedition," Fielding "with surprizing expedition," and Coleridge "with but little expedition." John Le Carré's Smiley's People still uses it in 1979, where it sounds pointedly old-fashioned. The obsolete "prompt dispatch" sense names the act of hurrying a thing along; this one names the quickness itself.

Practice

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Origin

The word comes from Middle French expédition, which came from Latin expeditio.