the act or process of moving people or goods from one place to another
Modern transportation allows fresh strawberries to reach snowy cities in the middle of winter.
The company specializes in the safe transportation of priceless paintings to museums worldwide.
✦ From Latin ‘transportare’ meaning ‘to carry across’, developing in English during the 17th century for the act of carrying goods or people.
the system, method, or vehicles people use to travel from place to place
During the strike, public transportation in the city came to a complete halt.
A bicycle is her main transportation around the university campus.
(historical) the punishment of sending a convicted person to a distant penal colony
In the 18th century, petty thieves risked transportation to Australia for stealing even small items.
Many sentences of transportation were eventually commuted when overcrowded ships could not sail.
✦ First used in English criminal law in the early 1600s; formalized by the Transportation Act of 1718, especially referring to shipment of convicts to North America and later Australia.
(literary) a state of great joy or excitement that seems to lift someone out of themselves
The crowd listened in silent transportation as the orchestra reached its triumphant finale.
She gazed at the newborn baby with a look of pure transportation.
✦ Borrowed from the sense of ‘being carried away’, recorded in English prose and poetry since the 1600s.
