highway
    n 1: a major road for any form of motor transport [syn:
         highway, main road]

Highway \High"way`\, n.
   A road or way open to the use of the public, especially a
   paved main road or thoroughfare between towns; in the latter
   sense it contrasts with local street; as, on the highways
   and byways.

   Syn: Way; road; path; course.
        [1913 Webster]

Highway
   a raised road for public use. Such roads were not found in
   Palestine; hence the force of the language used to describe the
   return of the captives and the advent of the Messiah (Isa.
   11:16; 35:8; 40:3; 62:10) under the figure of the preparation of
   a grand thoroughfare for their march.
   
     During their possession of Palestine the Romans constructed
   several important highways, as they did in all countries which
   they ruled.
   

HIGHWAY. A passage or road through the country, or some parts of it, for the 
use of the people. 1 Bouv. Inst. n. 442. The term highway is said to be a 
generic name for all kinds of public ways. 6 Mod R, 255. 
     2. Highways are universally laid out by public authority and repaired 
at the public expense, by direction of law. 4 Burr. Rep. 2511. 
     3. The public have an easement over a highway, of which the owner of 
the land cannot deprive them; but the soil and freehold still remain in the 
owner, and he may use the land above and below consistently with the 
easement. He may, therefore, work a mine, sink a drain or water course, 
under the highway, if the easement remains unimpaired. Vide Road; Street; 
Way; and 4 Vin. Ab. 502; Bac. Ab. h.t.; Com. Dig. Chemin; Dane's Ab. Index, 
h.t.; Egremont on Highways; Wellbeloved on Highways; Woolrych on Ways; 1 N. 
H. Rep. 16; 1 Conn. R. 103; 1 Pick. R. 122; 1 M'Cord's R. 67; 2 Mass. R. 
127; 1 Pick. R. 122; 3 Rawle, R. 495; 15 John. R. 483; 16 Mass. R. 33; 1 
Shepl. R. 250; 4 Day, R. 330; 2 Bail. R. 271; 1 Yeates, Rep. 167. 
     4. The owners of lots on opposite sides of a highway, are prima facie 
owners, each of one half of the highway,, 9 Serg. & Rawle, 33; Ham. Parties, 
275; Bro. Abr. Nuisance, pl. 18 and the owner may recover the possession in 
ejectment, and have it delivered to him, subject to the public easement. 
Adams on Eject. 19, 18; 2 Johns. Rep. 357; 15 Johns. Rep. 447; 6 Mass. 454; 
2 Mass. 125. 
     5. If the highway is impassable, the public have the right to pass over 
the adjacent soil; but this rule does not extend to private ways, without an 
express grant. Morg. Vad. Mec. 456-7; 1 Tho. Co. Lit. 275; note 1 Barton, 
Elem. Conv. 271; Yelv. 142, note 1.