• Routemarch

    Full definition of routemarch

    Noun

    routemarch

    (plural routemarches)
      1. Military exercise
        • 1983 , , Society In Change , By contrast with Pomerania, the administration of the Country of Lippe in eastern Westphalia was much more aware of ruthlessly having to humor and buy off men and officers in billet and on routemarch between nearby battlefronts.
        • 1984 , Owen Marshall , The Day Hemingway Died, and Other Stories , Some miles from Waiouru they pass a squad on routemarch.
        • 2009 , George MacDonald Fraser , The Complete McAuslan , When I was a young soldier, and had not yet acquired the tobacco vice (which began with scrounging cigarettes at routemarch halts when everyone else lit up and I felt left out) I used to win cross-country races.
      2. Grueling journey
        • 1929 , Eugene Jolas , Transition - Issues 18-20 , How intelligent are the Chinese jugglers, keeping cracked plates spinning in the air ; not to mention the Salvation Army with their tan-truming tamboureens and utilitarian music to help us on the routemarch towards heaven.
        • 1985, , Nusantara , This layout, however, does mean that staff have a routemarch to reach the rooms from the service areas

    Verb

      1. Go or send on a routemarch
        • 1899 , Horace Wyndham , The Queen's Service: Being the Experiences of a Private Soldier in the British Infantry at Home and Abroad , Again, the men in the ranks have to routemarch almost daily during the season, while Lieutenant So-and-so has worn the pack on but one occasion ; on the others, he finds it more pleasant to equip himself in the orthodox manner, ...
        • 2001 , Kate Berens & ‎Geoff Howard , The Rough Guide to Videogaming , The occasionally dodgy AI is irksome, though - having routemarched through a kilometre of jungle with your team supposedly following behind, you may turn around to find that they've literally got stuck in a ditch some distance away.
        • 2004 , Trevor Clark , Good second class (but not even C.3) , Billeted in seaside houses and drilled on the high school playground, routemarched through the Lammermuirs and abseiling up and down the sand cliffs, lectured at and made to deliver instant ten minute lecturettes, much of it seemed just a carry-on from the school and university corps - except that we had white bands round our shoulder straps and caps FS, and proper blancoed gaiters BD in place of Oxford's crummy leather ones.
      2. Go or send on an arduous tour
        • 2000, Ken Powell , City Transformed: Urban Architecture at the Beginning of the 21st Century , Instead, Mendini offered visitors, who might simply be en route from the station to the old town, the chance to dip into the collections, see only what they wanted, not be routemarched through room after room of artefacts.
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