Also 4–7 walke, 6 walck, whalke. [f. WALK v.1]
I. Action or manner of walking.
1. An act or spell of walking or going on foot from place to place; esp. a short journey on foot taken for exercise or pleasure. Phrase, to take († fetch, rarely make) a walk, also (somewhat arch.) to take one’s walk(s.
c. 1386. Chaucer, Man of Law’s T., 461. And in hir walk this blynde man they mette.
1576. Fleming, Panopl. Epist., 410. You haue your fine walkes, in places of pleasure, and therewithall communication seasoned with the leuen of learning.
1581. A. Hall, Iliad, II. 23. When as ye green eyed Goddesse thus had heard dame Iunoes talk, To finde the wilie Vlysses straight downe she tooke hir walke.
1638. R. Baker, trans. Balzac’s Lett. (vol. II.), 48. See here the decree of a country Phylosopher, and Matter of Meditation for one of your walkes at Yssy.
1660. F. Brooke, trans. Le Blanc’s Trav., 79. The unfortunate Lady Agarida took a walk by a little Rivers side.
1686. trans. Chardin’s Coronat. Solyman, 130. His most usual walks being upon Giulfa side.
1694. Motteux, Rabelais, IV. xxi. Some kind Wave will throw it [my will] ashoar,… and some King’s Daughter, going to fetch a Walk in the fresco on the Evening, will find it.
a. 1700. Evelyn, Diary, 19 Sept. 1683. In my walkes I stepp’d into a goldbeaters work-house.
1737. Common Sense, I. 205. I am not absurd enough, even to hint the usual rural Recreations, of fetching a Walk.
1753. [see WALK v. 5. d].
1774. Goldsm., Nat. Hist., I. Pref. p. iii. If … a man should, in his walks, meet with an animal, the name … of which he desires to know.
1825. T. Hook, Sayings, Ser. II. Passion & Princ., xiv. III. 338. She delighted in little dances, and walks home after them, and what are called walks out in the morning, to be met somewhere and joined by her beloved.
1834. Sir H. Taylor, Artevelde, I. I. vii. 61. My mistress, Sir, so please you, takes her walk Along the garden terrace, and desires [etc.].
1837. Dickens, Pickw., xxviii. At dinner they met again, after a five-and-twenty mile walk.
1865. E. Burritt, Walk to Land’s End, i. 32. I shouldered my knapsack again and made an evening walk to Kingston.
1885. ‘Mrs. Alexander,’ Valerie’s Fate, i. We have only ten minutes left for our walk back.
1910. A. Lang, in Encycl. Brit., X. 135/1. A man, in fun, called to a goat to escort his wife on a walk.
† b. In wider sense: Travel, wandering. Obs.
c. 1470. Golagros & Gaw., 494. The warliest wane … That euer I vist in my walk, in all this warld wyde.
1697. Dryden, Æneis, VII. 773. For not the Gods, nor angry Jove will bear Thy lawless wand’ring walks in upper Air.
† c. Line of march or movement (in quots., of an army, a chess-man). Obs.
a. 1400–50. Wars Alex., 3799. Þai droȝe furth be dissert & drinkles þai spill, Was nouthire waldis in þar walke ne watir to fynde.
a. 1548. Hall, Chron., Hen. VIII., 258. And so returned home by land,… burnyng and destroiyng euery pile, fortresse and village that was in their walke.
1589. Pappe w. Hatchet, in Lyly’s Wks. (1902), III. 395. He shall knowe what it is for a scaddle pawne, to crosse a Bishop in his owne walke.
d. fig. in various uses: † Expatiation, extended discourse (obs. rare); an act or a practice of walking, in any metaphorical sense of the verb.
1553. T. Wilson, Rhet., 16 b. Now in speakyng of honestie, I may by deuision of the vertues make a large walke.
1592. Breton, Pilgr. Parad. (Grosart), 19/1. From care, and cost, fancy, and wisedomes folly, He tooke his walke vnto a waie more holly.
1771–2. Cowper, Olney Hymns, I. iii. 1. Oh! for a closer walk with God.
1802. Wordsw., Sonn. Liberty, I. iv. And the talk Man holds with week-day man in the hourly walk Of the mind’s business.
1825. Lamb, Elia, Ser. II. Barbara S——, Perhaps from the pure infelicity which accompanies some people in their walk through life.
1862. Mrs. Browning, Little Mattie, 2. Short and narrow her life’s walk.
2. a. A procession, ceremonial perambulation.
1563. Homilies, II. Rogation-wk., IV. 248 b. Yet haue we occasion secondarylye geuen vs in our walkes on these dayes, to consider the old auncient boundes & limittes belongyng to our owne Towneship.
a. 1610. Bp. Hall, Epist., VI. v. 45. You may as well challenge the Trumpets of Rammeshornes, and seauen dayes walke vnto euery siedge.
1888. Barrie, Auld Licht Idylls (1892), 23. It is nearly twenty years since the gardeners had their last ‘walk’ in Thrums.
† b. An official perambulation. Cf. sense 10.
1626. Breton, Fantasticks (Grosart), 13/1. The Forresters now be about their walkes, and yet stealers sometimes cozen the Keepers.
† 3. pl. Ability to walk. Obs. rare–1.
1593. R. Harvey, Philad., 103. That God which giueth eyes to the blind, and walkes to the lame.
4. An act of walking as distinguished from other more rapid modes of locomotion on foot (see WALK v.1 7); the slowest gait of a land animal; a rate of progression that belongs to this gait, a walking pace.
a. of a horse or other quadruped (opposed to trot, amble, gallop, etc.).
1688. R. Holme, Armoury, II. 150/1. Walk, is the sloest pace a Horse doth go; it is used to cool a Horse after hard Riding.
1788. Mrs. Hughes, Henry & Isabella, I. 50. If the road was in the smallest degree rough … the horses were never suffered to go off a walk.
1832. Prop. Reg. Instr. Cavalry, II. 15. The rate of walk not to exceed four miles an hour.
1804. A. Hunter, Georg. Ess., VI. 187. If the distance is above a mile, they will suffer, unless it is walk all the way.
1848. Dickens, Dombey, xlvi. He rode near Mr. Dombey’s house; and falling into a walk as he approached it, looked up at the windows.
1902. ‘Violet Jacob,’ Sheep-Stealers, xiv. He did not once let his horse go out of a sober walk.
b. of a human being (opposed to run).
1601. Shaks., Twel. N., I. iii. 138. My verie walke should be a Iigge.
1838. Dickens, O. Twist, xiii. Exchanging her faltering walk for a good, swift, steady run.
1854. Surtees, Handley Cr., lxxiii. (1901), II. 255. He … rounded the corner into Red Lion Street at something between a walk and a run.
c. Applied spec. to a firm and regular gait. nonce-use.
1784. Cowper, Task, IV. 639. He stands erect; his slouch becomes a walk; He steps right onward, martial in his air.
d. A walking race; a pedestrian contest in which running is not allowed.
1887. Sporting Life, 2 July, 3/5. Clarke should win the Walk, with Lange second, and Ockelford third.
5. A manner of walking; esp. the distinctive manner of walking of an individual, as recognizable by visible appearance.
a. 1656. R. Cox, Actæon & Diana, 35. Who’s this…? the clothes and walk of my dear husband.
1697. Dryden, Æneis, I. 561. In length of Train descends her sweeping Gown, And by her graceful Walk, the Queen of Love is known.
1705. trans. Cowley’s Plants, Wks. 1711, III. 382. The Mandrake only imitates our Walk And on two legs erect is seen to stalk.
1774. Pennsylv. Gaz., 28 Sept. Suppl. 1/1. Run away … an Irish servant man,… slender made, long visage, small legs, and hath a clumsy walk.
1863. Geo. Eliot, Romola, xiii. It was impossible to mistake her figure and her walk.
1878. Bosw. Smith, Carthage, 438. Who has a walk that can be named with that of the Arab?
† b. To diminish one’s walks: ? to walk mincingly. Obs.
1609. Dekker, Gull’s Hornbk., iv. 17. That true humorous Gallant that desires to powre himselfe into all fashions … must as well practise to diminish his walkes, as to bee various in his sallets, curious in his Tobacco, [etc.].
6. fig. a. In religious language (cf. WALK v.1 6 a): Manner of behavior, conduct of life.
c. 1586. C’tess Pembroke, Ps. CXIX. ii. Whom in walk Gods way directeth, Sure them no sinnfull blott infecteth Of deed or word.
1760. T. Hutchinson, Hist. Mass. Bay, iv. (1765), 421. The irregular walk or demeanor of any one church.
1818. Scott, Hrt. Midl., x. In this proposal there was much that pleased old David,… the lassie would be under Mrs. Saddletree’s eye, who had an upright walk.
1831. Carlyle, Ess., Early Ger. Lit. (1840), III. 186. Tauler … a man of antique Christian walk.
1845–6. Trench, Huls. Lect., Ser. II. vii. 263. What do they require of us but a walk corresponding?
1871. Morley, Carlyle, in Crit. Misc., Ser. I. 237. The most important question that we can ask of any great teacher, as of the walk and conversation of any commonest person, remains this, how far has he [etc.].
† b. A course of conduct. Obs.
1772. Burke, Lett., 17 Nov., Corr. (1844), I. 378. None of our friends are to blame for this rejection of that idea…. It was impossible at that time to take a separate walk from them.
1786. Mme. D’Arblay, Diary, 10 Dec. I was ashamed to appear the leader in a walk so new as that of leaving the Lodge in an evening.
† 7. Theat. ? The course of action assigned to one person of a drama. Obs.
Davenant speaks of ‘the underwalks (or lesser intrigues) of persons.’
1651. Davenant, Gondibert, Pref. To these Meanders of the English Stage I have cut out the Walks of my Poems.
1673. Bp. S. Parker, Reproof Reh. Transp., 10. You summ up your Charge in Six Heads, which you sometimes entitle Playes, sometimes Hypotheses, sometimes Aphorisms; and why not Plots, and Scenes, and Walks, and under-walks, &c.?
II. Place or path for walking.
† 8. The usual place of walking, the haunt or resort (of a person or animal). Obs.
c. 1386. Chaucer, Knt.’s T., 211. The gardyn … Ther as this fresshe Emelye … Was in hire walk, and romed vp and doun.
c. 1400. Rom. Rose, 2505. Thus shalt thou … gete enchesoun to goon ageyn Unto thy walk, or to thy place, Where thou biheld hir fleshly face [Fr. d’aler Derechief encore en la rue Ou etc.].
a. 1450. Mirk’s Festial, 55. But þus he [sc. the hunter] wole spye wher hys [sc. the unicorn’s] walk ys, and þer he settyþe a woman þat ys clene mayden.
1488–9. Plimpton Corr. (Camden), 59. Sir, I wold advise your mastership cause William Scargell to take good regard to himselfe & not to use his old walkes; for & he doe, he wylbe taken.
1530. Palsgr., 436/2. Beware, come nat in his walke lest he arrest the: gardes toy de te trouuer la ou il hante.
1593. Marlowe, Edw. II. (Brooke), 1804. Edmund away … Proud Mortimer pries neare into thy walkes.
1607. Topsell, Four-f. Beasts, 300. If any male or other stone Horsse come within their walke, then presently they make force at him.
1634. Peacham, Compl. Gentl., x. (1906), 88. For with the weeds there are delicate flowers in those walkes of Venus [Ovid’s Amores, etc.].
1702. Rowe, Ambit. Step-Mother, I. i. With heedless steps they unawares Tread on the Lyons walk.
† b. transf. The region within which something moves. Also fig. Obs.
1545. Ascham, Toxoph., I. (Arb.), 75. Meanynge therby, that no man … came in their [sc. the arrows] walke, that escaped without death.
1597. Hooker, Eccl. Pol., V. lxxxi. § 16. Those coulorable and suttle crimes that seldome are taken within the walke of humaine justice.
1656. Cowley, Pindar. Odes, Praise Pindar, iv. Lo, how th’ obsequious Wind, and swelling Ayr The Theban Swan does upwards bear Into the walks of Clouds, where he does play.
1692. Ray, Disc., IV. ii. (1732), 101. The middle region of the Air where the Walk of the Clouds is.
1732. Pope, Ess. Man, I. 102. Far as the solar walk or milky way.
9. A place prepared or set apart for walking.
a. In a church or other public building: An ambulatory; a place where people can walk, a cloister, aisle, portico, or the like; esp. in the Royal Exchange, each of the portions of the ambulatory formerly allotted to different classes of merchants; designated by special names, as East India, Virginia, Jamaica, Spanish etc. walk (see Entick, London, ed. 1766, IV. 102).
1530. Palsgr., 286/2. Walke to walke up and downe in, paruis.
1556. Withals, Dict. (1562), 42. A walke, galery, or porche to walke in, porticus.
1579. E. Hake, Newes out of Powles (1872), F iij. Here, in this Church a walck there is where Papistes doe frequent To talke of newes among themselues.
1593. Norden, Spec. Brit., I. Mdsx., 35. Royall exchange…. The form of the building is quadrate, with walks round the mayne building supported with pillers of marble.
1595. Stow, Surv. (1603), 404. They resort all to the said Temple Church, in the round walke whereof [etc.].
c. 1630. Risdon, Surv. Devon, § 42 (1810), 48. In one of the walks of the church there is a stone.
1661. in M. Sellers, Eastland Co. (Camden), Introd. 75. Our deputies … will meet theirs at London upon the Exchange Munday and Tusday come senett at noone in the Eastlande Walke.
1710. Lond. Gaz., No. 4708/4. Inquire at the … Royal Exchange East Country-Walk in Exchange Time. Ibid. (1715), No. 5341/4. The Spanish Walk in the Royal Exchange.
1858. Hawthorne, Fr. & It. Note-bks. (1871), II. 101. The great cloister … has a walk of intersecting arches round its four sides.
1884. 19th Cent., Jan., 104. The cloister arcade was said to have four walks.
b. An avenue bordered by trees.
1596. Spenser, F. Q., IV. x. 25. And all without were walkes and alleyes dight With diuers trees, enrang’d in euen rankes.
1600. J. Pory, trans. Leo’s Africa, II. 93. Quinces here are of an incredible bignes. Their vines dispersing themselves vpon the boughes of trees doe make most pleasant bowers and walkes.
1623. J. Taylor (Water P.), New Discov. by Sea, C 2 b. There hath he made Walkes, hedges, and Arbours, of all manner of most delicate fruit Trees.
1626. Toke (Kent) Estate Acc. (MS.), fol. 98. Quicksett for the further end of the wake in the new orchard.
1693. Motteux, St. Olon’s Morocco, 8. A fiery Horse, that ran away with him … as he wheel’d about under a Walk of Orange Trees.
1711. Addison, Spect., No. 110, ¶ 1. There is a long Walk of aged Elms.
1853. Dickens, Bleak Ho., xviii. The old lime-tree walk was like green cloisters.
c. A broad path in a garden or pleasure-ground. Also, a way set apart for foot-passengers at the side of a street or road; a footwalk, sidewalk.
1533. MS. Rawl. 776, lf. 171 b. For that Chylderne shall not cast Rubbysh vnto the Kynges new Whalke.
1601. Shaks., Twel. N., II. v. 19. Get ye all three into the box tree: Maluolio’s comming downe this walke.
1667. Primatt, City & C. Builder, 153. It is decent to have fine gravel Walks in the Garden.
1688. R. Holme, Armoury, II. 118/2. Allies, or Walks well Gravelled.
1693. Evelyn, De la Quint. Compl. Gard., I. 44. A Walk must be broad enough for two Persons to walk a-breast at least,… without which it would no longer be a real Walk, but a large Path.
1784. Cowper, Task, I. 351. We tread the wilderness, whose well-roll’d walks … give ample space To narrow bounds.
1848. Thackeray, Van. Fair, xxxix. The library looked out on the front walk and park.
1854. Surtees, Handley Cr., xli. (1901), II. 38. That’s one of the few pulls we magistrates have—I keep my avenue in repair and my walks weeded by the vagrants.
1913. Mrs. Stratton-Porter, Laddie, xviii. (1916), 366. Mr. Pryor lay all twisted on the walk.
collect. 1874. Englishman’s Guide Bk. U. S. & Canada, 23. There are in it [the Central Park, New York] about 9 miles of carriage drive, 4 of bridle road, and about 25 miles of walk.
d. A public promenade in or near a town.
1840. Dickens, Old C. Shop, xliv. In the public walks and lounges of a town, people go to see and to be seen.
1842. Louisa S. Costello, Pilgr. Auvergne, II. iii. 43. This public walk is prettily arranged on the site of a Roman amphitheatre.
e. The circular pavement on which the mill-horse walks in driving the mill.
1734. Phil. Trans., XXXVIII. 403. Their Muscles and Tendons … are unequally strain’d, as the Duty is hardest on one Side, even tho’ their Walk is large.
1744. Desaguliers, Course Exper. Philos., II. 536. Those plain and simple Instruments used at the Coal-pits, call’d Barrel-Gins, where an Horse going round in a sufficiently large Walk draws round an Axis in Peritrochio.
1834–6. Barlow, in Encycl. Metrop. (1845), VIII. 91/1. The diameter of a walk for a horse mill ought to be at least 25 to 30 feet.
f. = ROPE-WALK.
1794. Rigging & Seamanship, I. 54. A Capstern … is fixed in the ground at the lower-end of the walk. Ibid., 56. Rope-house-ground, or Walk, should be four-hundred yards long.
1839. Ure, Dict. Arts, 1070 (Rope-making.) As soon as he has reached the termination of the walk, a second spinner takes the yarn off the whirl, and gives it to another person to put upon a reel.
10. A tract of forest land comprised in the circuit regularly perambulated by a superintending officer (cf. 3); a division of a forest placed in the charge of a forester, ranger or keeper.
1541. N. Country Wills (Surtees, 1908), 190. To poor housholders and other honest people within my walkes within the forest of Wyndesore.
1593. Shaks., 3 Hen. VI., V. ii. 24. My Parkes, my Walkes, my Mannors that I had, Euen now forsake me.
1642. Docq. Lett. Pat. at Oxf. (1837), 330. The Office of Keeper of the lower walke of the great Parke of Windsor. Ibid., 338. The Offices of the foure Bayliwickes or eight walkes, and of Ranger and Launderer of the Forrest of Whichwood.
1679–88. Moneys Secr. Serv. Chas. II. & Jas. II. (Camden), 125. To Sr Eliab Harvey, Lieut. of Waltham forest,… for the repayres of Low-Layton Lodge, wherein he lives, being under-keeper of that walk.
a. 1700. Evelyn, Diary, 23 Oct. 1686. Went with the Countesse of Sunderland to Cranbourn, a lodge and walke of my Lord Godolphin’s in Windsor Parke.
1778. Engl. Gazetteer (ed. 2), s.v. New Forest, There are 9 walks in it; and to every one a keeper, under a lord-warden, besides 2 rangers, and a bow-bearer.
1810. J. Evans & Britton, Beauties Eng. & Wales, XI. Northampt. 31. The Forest of Whittlewood…. The whole is divided into five walks, viz. Hazleborough, Sholbrook, Wakefield, Hanger, and Shrobb.
1819. Scott, Ivanhoe, xxxii. If the Normans drive ye from these walks, Rowena has forests of her own, where her gallant deliverers may range at full freedom.
† b. Agric. A tract of land used for corn-growing.
1797. in A. Young, Agric. Suffolk, 39. A walk that is laid down with plenty of seeds for two years, never grows so much corn as when first broke up again.
c. West Indian. A plantation.
1793. Ann. Reg., Nat. Hist., 310. The usual method of forming a new piemento plantation (in Jamaica it is called a walk) is nothing more than to appropriate a piece of woodland, [etc.].
1901. Westm. Gaz., 13 June, 2/3. Many sugar estates in the West Indies have of late years been converted into banana walks.
11. a. An enclosure in which poultry or other birds are allowed to run freely; a fowl-run. Also (cf. sense 13), a place to which fowls are sent in order that they may have more space to run about than can be allowed them where they are bred: in phrase at walk.
1538. Elyot, Dict, Vivarium, a place, where wylde beastes, byrdes, or fyshes be keple. It may be callyd as welle a ponde, as a parke, a counnyngar, a walke for byrdes.
1600. Surflet, Country Farm, I. xvi. 107. Likewise you must not let them [geese] lay out of their walke or fold.
1880. Jessopp, Arcady, i. (1887), 10. He eats the eggs for breakfast and the chickens for dinner, goes in for fancy breeds [of fowl], and runs up an ornamental ‘walk’ for them.
† b. A walk of snipes († snites). In the early lists of ‘proper terms’ the meaning is uncertain; later writers interpret it as a ‘company term’ (cf. ‘congregation of plovers’ in the same lists).
c. 1450. MS. Egerton 1995, fol. 19. A Walke of Snytys.
1801. Strutt, Sports & Past., I. ii. 33.
1859. Folkard, Wild Fowler, i. 6. A walk of snipes.
c. The place in which a game-cock is kept. Cock of the walk (fig.): a person whose supremacy in his own circle is undisputed (see COCK sb.1 7).
1615. T. Savile, in J. J. Cartwright, Chapters Hist. Yorks. (1872), 350. I have … borowed my father’s cocks…. I go … to get walkes for them.
1688. R. Holme, Armoury, II. 251/2. The Cocks Walk is the place where he is bred, which usually is a place that no other Cock comes to.
c. 1770. T. Fairfax, Compl. Sportsm., 4. Let the cock chickens go with their hens, till they begin to fight one with another; but then separate them into several walks, and that walk is the best, that is freest from the resort of others.
1810. Chester Chron., 14 Dec., 2/2. He reigned pretty much as cock of the walk on the lower gun-deck.
1823. Grose’s Dict. Vulgar T. (ed. Egan), Cock, or Chief Cock of the Walk. The leading man in any Society or body; the best boxer in a village or district.
1823. ‘Jon Bee,’ Dict. Turf, Walk (in cocking)—the ground for keeping them.
1857. Trollope, Barchester T., xvii. heading, Who shall be cock of the walk?
1875. Whyte-Melville, Katerfelto, i. Mr. Gale, to use his own phraseology, was accustomed to consider himself Cock of the Walk in every society he frequented.
12. Land, or a tract of land, used for the pasture of animals, esp. sheep. Obs. exc. in SHEEPWALK.
1549. Latimer, 1st Serm. bef. Edw. VI. (Arb.), 40. He had walke for a hundred shepe, and my mother mylked .xxx. kyne.
1573–8. Tusser, Husb. (1878), 62. The housing of cattel while winter doth hold … spareth the pasture for walke of thy sheepe.
a. 1647. Habington, Surv. Worcs. (Worcs. Hist. Soc.), I. 254. A large walke for sauage beastes, but nowe more commodiously chaunged to the civill habitations of many gentellmen.
1808. Jamieson, Gang,… a pasture or walk for cattle.
13. A farm or cottage to which a young hound is sent in order to get accustomed to a variety of surroundings. Phrases, at walk, to put to walk.
1735. Somerville, Chase, IV. Argt. Of the litter of whelps … of setting them out to their several walks.
1781. P. Beckford, Thoughts Hunting, v. 60. The distemper makes dreadful havoc with whelps at their walks.
1840. Blaine, Encycl. Rur. Sports, IV. v. § 3. 474. Hounds are usually named at the time they are sent out to their walks.
1845. Youatt, Dog, ii. 36. There is a difference of opinion whether the [greyhound] whelp should be kept in the kennel and subjected to its regular discipline, or placed at walk in some farm-house.
1854. Surtees, Handley Cr. (1901), I. i. 4. The hounds were still kept at walks during the summer.
1856. ‘Stonehenge,’ Brit. Sports, II. iv. § 340. The Walks for the Young Hounds should be chosen in such situations as that they shall be accustomed to all sorts of company from children to horses.
1881. E. D. Brickwood, Hound, in Encycl. Brit., XII. 315/2. When about ten or twelve weeks old [foxhound] puppies are sent out to walk.
14. The ‘beat,’ round, or circuit of an itinerating official, workman, tradesman, beggar, etc.; the district within which a person is accustomed to practise his occupation without interference from a rival. ? Obs.
1703. Lond. Gaz., No. 3910/4. Making use of the Company’s Pavior of that Walk to Dig the same.
1705. trans. Bosman’s Guinea, 98. The last and most contemptible Office is that of Under-Fiscal, commonly called by us, Auditor, though in his Walks, Informer, as he really is no better.
1824. Scott, Redgauntlet, let. xii. The old man [the blind fiddler] struck the earth with his staff…. ‘The whoreson fisher rabble! They have brought another violer upon my walk!’
1825. Hone, Every-day Bk., I. 571. Milk people of less profitable walks.
1848. Sinks of Lond., 97. Beat, a watchman’s walk.
1851. Mayhew, Lond. Labour, I. 435/2. ‘My father had a milk-walk,’ he said. Ibid. (1861), II. 8/2. He had thoughts at one time of trying to establish himself in a cats’-meat walk.
15. A distance or length of way to be walked; esp. such a distance as defined by a specified length of time spent in walking. (Often in phrases used advb.)
1562. J. Heywood, Prov. & Epigr. (1867), 79. Dwellyng a good walke from hir at the townes eende.
a. 1700. Evelyn, Diary, 15 Sept., 1685. Her house being a walke in the forest, within a little of a quarter mile from Bagshot towne.
1808. Scott, in Lockhart, I. i. 59. I agreed to go every morning to his house, which, being at the extremity of Prince’s Street, New Town, was a walk of two miles.
1834. Dickens, Sk. Boz, Boarding-ho., i. ‘A cheerful musical home in a select private family, residing within ten minutes’ walk of’—everywhere.
1859. Mrs. Carlyle, Lett., III. 4. Within a quarter of an hour’s walk of it.
1875. Ruskin, Morn. Florence, i. 5. A few hundred yards west of you, within ten minutes’ walk, is the Baptistery of Florence.
1883. C. Howard, Roads Eng. & Wales (ed. 3), 123. Beginning with 1/4 m. walk out of the town, it is an almost continual ascent for 7 m. Ibid. There is a mile run down to the railway, followed by a mile walk up into Stow.
b. U.S. (See quot.)
1901. P. Fountain, Deserts N. Amer., vii. 118. The Indians had a singular custom in parting with their land. They sold it by the ‘walk.’ Ibid., 119. The duration of a walk was always a day in time, no matter what the distance.
16. A course or circuit, in the country or in a town, which may be chosen for walking.
1617. Moryson, Itin., I. 32. In the valley under this Mountaine of Goates, towards the City, is a pleasant walk, of the sweetnes called the Phylosophicall way.
1687. A. Lovell, trans. Thevenot’s Trav., I. 28. Though the Countrey about Constantinople be not so delightful, nor so well peopled, as in France; yet it is not without pleasant Walks.
1693. Dryden, Ovid’s Metam., XIII. Acis, etc., 51. A Promontory … over-looks the Seas: On either side, below, the water flows: This airy walk the Giant Lover chose.
1757. Mrs. P. L. Powys, Passages fr. Diaries (1899), 32. I … thought myself most happy when I got into the grove, one of the sweetest walks in Matlock.
1786. Cowper, Lett. to J. Hill, 9 Dec. Weston is one of the prettiest villages in England, and the walks about it at all seasons of the year delightful.
1850. J. Martineau, in J. Drummond, Life (1902), I. 337. We can find walks that will vie with the Thiergarten even in this desolate country.
1860. Tyndall, Glac., I. xv. 100. This walk was full of instruction and delight.
III. Department of action.
17. A department of action; a particular branch or variety of some specified activity, e.g., trade, literature, science, etc.; a special line of work.
1759. Franklin, Ess., Wks. 1840, III. 145. Two thirds were to be a quorum in the upper walk of business, and one third in the lower.
1762. H. Walpole, Vertue’s Anecd. Paint. (1786), I. Pref. p. vii. It would be difficult … to assign a physical reason, why a nation that produced Shakespear, should owe its glory in another walk of genius to Holbein and Vandyck.
1776. Mickle, trans. Camoens’ Lusiad, Dissert. 167/1. However superior Voltaire may be in the other walks of poetry, certain it is, no originality, no strength of colouring, shines in the Henriade.
1806. J. Beresford, Miseries Hum. Life, vi. Introd. As you appear to have a peculiar kindness for Inns, I will treat you with a choice sample of satisfactions in that walk of enjoyment.
1809. Malkin, Gil Blas, VII. xiii. ¶ 9. He had … taken upon himself to eclipse the best writers each in their own favourite walk.
1815. W. H. Ireland, Scribbleomania, 147. Three sisters … displayed much talent in pursuing this walk of literature.
1823. De Quincey, Lett. Educ., i. (1860), 12. He seeks to renew that elevated walk of study at all opportunities.
1833. Chalmers, Const. Man (1835), I. ii. 137. Each affection has its peculiar walk of enjoyment.
1838. Prescott, Ferd. & Is., I. xix. II. 293. A similar impulse was felt in the other walks of science.
1856. Masson, Ess., iv. 112. Butler had shewn the more original vein of talent in one particular walk.
1857. Dickens, Dorrit, II. vi. ‘Does Mr. Henry Gowan paint—ha—Portraits?’ inquired Mr. Dorrit. Mr. Sparkler opined that he painted anything, if he could get the job. ‘He has no particular walk?’… ‘No speciality?’ said Mr. Dorrit.
1866. Crump, Banking, ii. 48. It is one of the most singular peculiarities in connection with men who have had much experience in other walks of trade, as merchants, &c.
1888. Bryce, Amer. Commw., xcviii. III. 370. When he [a lawyer] has attained real eminence he may confine himself entirely to the higher walks.
18. Walk of life (more rarely walk in life): a. A social grade, station of life, rank. Also walk of society. b. A trade, profession or occupation.
a. 1752. Fielding, Covent-Garden Jrnl., No. 56, ¶ 9. Both of these [sc. characters of humour] will be almost infinitely diversified according to the different … natural dispositions of each individual; and according to their different walks in life.
1766. Fordyce, Serm. Young Women (1767), II. xiii. 247. Those who are placed in the higher walks of life.
1768. Goldsm., Goodn. Man, Pref. The term ‘genteel comedy’ was then unknown amongst us, and little more was desired by an audience than nature and humour, in whatever walks of life they were most conspicuous.
1800. Asiatic Ann. Reg., II. 97/2. The walk of life from which writers are to come should be duly weighed as they are in future, perhaps, to become directors, and probably legislators of India.
1832. P. Egan’s Bk. Sports, No. 5. 66/2. Nature, enriched by art, had rendered the late Mr. Emery a man not often to be met with in the walks of society.
1899. Ch. Times, 13 Oct., 415/2. But according to the fashion of dress of to-day, it is not easy to tell from what walk in life women may come.
b. 1848. Sinks of Lond., 3. In what is termed the ‘walks of life.’
1849. Macaulay, Hist. Eng., viii. II. 307. They found every walk of life towards which men of their habits could look for a subsistence closed against them with malignant care.
1861. Bright, Sp. India, 19 March, Sp. (1868), I. 119. Of course there are men of genius in very objectionable walks of life.
1888. Bryce, Amer. Commw., xcviii. III. 378. The lawyers outnumber the persons belonging to other walks of life.
1912. Sat. Rev., 18 May, 615/1. Emolument far greater than what was possible for them in any other walk of life.
19. (= walk of life, 18 a and b). a. Social grade or station; b. trade or profession. rare.
a. 1847. Miller, First Impr. Eng., xiii. 251. I met a funeral, the first I had seen in England. It was apparently that of a person in the middle walks. Ibid. (1854), Sch. & Schm. (1858), 246. To those who move in the upper walks, the superiority in status of the village shop-keeper over the journeyman mason may not be very perceptible.
b. 1836. Dickens, Sk. Boz, First of May. Certain dark insinuations … to the effect that children in the lower ranks of life were beginning to choose chimney-sweeping as their particular walk.
IV. 20. attrib. and Comb. (sense 1) as walk-companion; (sense 9 c), as walk-making, -side; (sense 14) as walk-rotation; (sense 12) as walk-land; also walk-clerk, a banker’s clerk whose duty it is to collect payment of cheques in a particular district; walksman, an officer charged with the care of a certain length of the banks of a river or canal; walkway U.S. = sense 9 c.
1890. H. Price, Lond. Bankers, 35, note. The following misfortune that befell a *walk-clerk.
1833. Lamb, Lett. to Wordsw., May. I am about to lose my old and only *walk-companion, whose mirthful spirits were the ‘youth of our house.’
1797. A. Young, Agric. Suffolk, 108. Ten loads … an acre upon good land, a middling crop; but upon *walk-land (poor sheep-walks ploughed up) less.
1849. J. Forbes, Physic. Holiday, i. (1850), 1. They … indulge in farming, gardening, tree-felling, *walk-making, or [etc.].
1893. Stevenson, Catriona, iii. A pleasant gabled house set by the *walkside among some brave young woods.
1901. Daily Chron., 8 June, 7/7. The alleged attempts of the [Post Office] department to reduce the value of Christmas boxes by the introduction of a system of *‘walk-rotation.’
1794. Ann. Reg., Nat. Hist., 311. For the care of the banks [of the New River], a *walksman is appointed to every two miles.
1903. Daily Chron., 17 March, 9/5. A ‘walksman’ in the service of the New River Company.
1911. H. S. Harrison, Queed, xvi. He went down the broad steps of the Capitol, and out the winding white *walkway through the park.
