Also 7 advenue, avenew(e, avennue. [a. F. avenue sb. from fem. pa. pple. of avenir:—L. advenīre, f. ad to + venīre to come (after which spelt advenue by some in 16–17th c.). Occas., in 18th c., accented ave·nue.]
† 1. The action of coming to; approach. Obs.
1639. Saltmarsh, Pract. Policie, 23. The first heate you raise by your avenues and addresses will coole.
2. gen. A way of access or approach; a passage or path of entrance or exit. (Formerly a regular military term.) Now chiefly fig.
1600. Holland, Livy, XXXV. l. 917. Hermeum, where is the advenue [transitus] out of Bœotia into the Iland of Eubœa.
a. 1672. Wood, Life (1848), 26. Col. Legge … with the reere guarded the towne and avenews.
1678. Butler, Hud., III. i. 1500. With holy water, like a sluice To overflow all avenues.
1800. Stuart, in Wellesley Disp. (1877), 577. It becomes incumbent on us to watch … this avenue to India.
fig. 1603. Holland, Plutarch, 160. I have prevented thee (ô Fortune) I have stopped up all thy avenewes.
1655. H. L’Estrange, Chas. I., 8. To whom we dare not think the advenue’s of eternal blessednesse precluded.
c. 1742. C. Wesley, in Southey, Wesley (1846), I. xiii. 370, note. Guard each avenue to thy flutt’ring heart, And act the sister’s and the Christian’s part.
1876. Green, Short Hist., ix. § 9. 697. To Scotland the Union opened up new avenues of wealth.
3. The chief approach to a country-house, usually bordered by trees; hence, any broad roadway bordered or marked by trees or other objects at regular intervals. Sometimes used of the trees alone, with tacit disregard of the road they overshadow.
(The current literal sense, app. introduced by Evelyn.)
1654. Evelyn, Diary, 25 Aug. The avenue was vngraceful. Ibid. (1664), Sylva, Advt. That this may yet be no prejudice to the meaner capacities let them read for avenue, the principal walk to the front of the house, or seat.
1669. Worlidge, Syst. Agric. (1681), 321. Avenues, Ways or Passages, or Rows or Walks of Trees.
1707. Farquhar, Beaux’ Strat., IV. i. Drawn by the Appearance of your handsome House … and walking up the Avenue.
1859. Geo. Eliot, A. Bede, 111. Arthur Donnithorne passed under an avenue of limes and beeches.
1862. Stanley, Jew. Ch. (1877), I. iv. 74. The avenue of sphinxes leading to the huge gateway.
4. A fine wide street. (Used esp. in U.S.)
1858. Hawthorne, Fr. & It. Jrnls., II. 209. They hardly look like streets at all, but, nevertheless have names printed on the corners, just as if they were stately avenues.
Mod. Northumberland Avenue leading to the Thames Embankment.
5. The ambulacrum or double row of pores for the protrusion of the tube-feet in sea-urchins.
1841. E. Forbes, Brit. Starfish, 152. There are five pairs of avenues; they run from mouth to anus.
1870. Rolleston, Anim. Life, 141. Along the medial line of each radial avenue.
