EXPEDITION

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does expedition mean? 

• EXPEDITION (noun)
  The noun EXPEDITION has 5 senses:

1. a military campaign designed to achieve a specific objective in a foreign country

2. an organized group of people undertaking a journey for a particular purpose

3. a journey organized for a particular purpose

4. a journey taken for pleasure

5. the property of being prompt and efficient

  Familiarity information: EXPEDITION used as a noun is common.

 Dictionary entry details 

• EXPEDITION (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A military campaign designed to achieve a specific objective in a foreign country

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Synonyms:

expedition; hostile expedition; military expedition

Hypernyms ("expedition" is a kind of...):

campaign; military campaign (several related operations aimed at achieving a particular goal (usually within geographical and temporal constraints))

Domain category:

armed forces; armed services; military; military machine; war machine (the military forces of a nation)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "expedition"):

Crusade (any of the more or less continuous military expeditions in the 11th to 13th centuries when Christian powers of Europe tried to recapture the Holy Land from the Muslims)

Derivation:

expeditionary ((used of military forces) designed for military operations abroad)

Sense 2

Meaning:

An organized group of people undertaking a journey for a particular purpose

Classified under:

Nouns denoting groupings of people or objects

Context example:

an expedition was sent to explore Mars

Hypernyms ("expedition" is a kind of...):

working group; working party (a group of people working together temporarily until some goal is achieved)

Instance hyponyms:

Lewis and Clark Expedition (an expedition sent by Thomas Jefferson to explore the northwestern territories of the United States; led by Meriwether Lewis and William Clark; traveled from St. Louis to the mouth of the Columbia River from 1803 to 1806)

Sense 3

Meaning:

A journey organized for a particular purpose

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Hypernyms ("expedition" is a kind of...):

journey; journeying (the act of traveling from one place to another)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "expedition"):

scouting trip (an expedition undertaken to gain information)

campaign; hunting expedition; safari (an overland journey by hunters (especially in Africa))

exploration; geographic expedition (to travel for the purpose of discovery)

Sense 4

Meaning:

A journey taken for pleasure

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Synonyms:

excursion; expedition; jaunt; junket; outing; pleasure trip; sashay

Context example:

after cautious sashays into the field

Hypernyms ("expedition" is a kind of...):

journey; journeying (the act of traveling from one place to another)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "expedition"):

airing (a short excursion (a walk or ride) in the open air)

field trip (a group excursion (to a museum or the woods or some historic place) for firsthand examination)

Sense 5

Meaning:

The property of being prompt and efficient

Classified under:

Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects

Synonyms:

despatch; dispatch; expedition; expeditiousness

Context example:

it was done with dispatch

Hypernyms ("expedition" is a kind of...):

celerity; quickness; rapidity; rapidness; speediness (a rate that is rapid)

Derivation:

expeditious (marked by speed and efficiency)

 Context examples 

Peeping through the meshes of the hammock, he saw the Marches coming out, as if bound on some expedition.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

Where had she been during that strange expedition?

(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

In pursuance of my aunt's kind scheme, I was shortly afterwards fitted out with a handsome purse of money, and a portmanteau, and tenderly dismissed upon my expedition.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

I'll use my own, said Lord John Roxton, in fitting a well-formed expedition and having another look at the dear old plateau.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

He cut a slice of beef from the joint upon the sideboard, sandwiched it between two rounds of bread, and thrusting this rude meal into his pocket he started off upon his expedition.

(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

The paper presents analyses of three expeditions led by scientist Maureen O’Leary of Stony Brook University to rock exposures in the Sahara.

(Ancient Saharan seaway illustrates how Earth’s climate and creatures can undergo extreme change, National Science Foundation)

The researchers also examined water samples collected from previous expeditions to the Southern Ocean.

(Marine organisms in Southern Ocean will face shallower zone for life, National Science Foundation)

But doing so might be a risky expedition.

(Potentially Habitable 'Super-Earths' Found Orbiting around Sun's near Neighbor, The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)

What have we gained by your expedition?

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Always he declined company on these expeditions, and the people marvelled.

(Love of Life and Other Stories, by Jack London)