Hitchhike

Podcast 1 · Introduction

Hitchhike

A documentary-style narration: origin, meaning, and feel.

Part of speech

verb and noun

Pronunciation

HITCH-hyk  /ˈhɪtʃhaɪk/

Definition

As a verb: to travel by obtaining free rides from passing motorists; to get a lift in a vehicle driven by someone else, typically a stranger, by standing by the roadside and signalling. As a noun: an act of hitchhiking or a journey made by hitching rides.

Plain meaning

To hitchhike means to travel by getting free lifts from strangers' cars — standing at the roadside with your thumb out or a sign, hoping a passing driver will stop and take you. It was a common way of travelling cheaply before concerns about safety made it less widespread.

Register

Neutral and informal. Hitchhike is standard vocabulary for the practice of obtaining free rides. The figurative use — to hitchhike on someone else's research, to hitchhike on a policy — means to attach oneself to something to benefit from it without contributing to it.