Definition of "route"

I corralled the judge, and we started off across the fields, in no very mild state of fear of that gentleman's wife, whose vigilance was seldom relaxed. And thus we came by a circuitous route to Mohair, the judge occupied by his own guilty thoughts, and I by others not less disturbing.

1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter VIII, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd.

It is likely that the long evolutionary trajectory of Mycoplasma went from a reductive autotroph to oxidative heterotroph to a cell-wall–defective degenerate parasite. This evolutionary trajectory assumes the simplicity to complexity route of biogenesis, a point of view that is not universally accepted.

2013 March, Harold J. Morowitz, “The Smallest Cell”, in American Scientist, volume 101, number 2, page 83

If such an option is to viable over time, it needs to be protected against competitors. Having patent protection is one route. […] Another route is to have a programmatic investment strategy […] . Rolex has taken this route […]

2010, Damien McLoughlin, David A. Aaker, Strategic Market Management: Global Perspectives, John Wiley & Sons, pages 156–7

The Chinese, ever since the first century of our era, have called the countries which we to-day name Kashgar and Sungaria, "routes." They referred them to their relative position on the two sides of the Tian-Shan, and called our Sungaria, Pe-lu, " northern route," and our Kashgar, Nan-lu, " southern route." The Turks gave other names to these countries; they called the northern route besh-balik, "the five cities," Pentapolis; the southern route was alti-shehr, " the six cities," Hexapolis.

1908, Henry Smith Williams, The Historians' History of the World

Under the director were eight education promotion officials (quanxue yuan), each installed in a “route”(lu,corresponding to the policing ward).

2005, Huaiyin Li, Village Governance In North China: Huailu County, 1875-1936

In the year Zhiyuan 8, 5th month, on xinwei day (around June, 1271), owing to the fact that the chieftains of the eight polities in Dali had submitted recently and were adhered to [China], the thirty-seven tribal regions under Dali were divided into three routes.

2008, Foon Ming Liew, Volker Grabowsky, & ʻArunrat Wichīankhīeo, Lan Na in Chinese historiography

Chinese administrative "cities" were often the location of more than one yamen, each with its own territorial jurisdiction. For instance, Yangszhou was not only the seat of the Pacificiation Commission (xuanweisi) of Huaidonglu, but also the capital of the Yanzhou Route (lu) subordinated to the Pacification Commission. Morevover, it was the administrative seat of Jiangdu District, which was subordinated to the Yangzhou Route.

2012, Hans Ulrich Vogel, Marco Polo Was in China

Google Glass has come under fire from privacy advocates because it can record video without subjects being aware of it, and that any video will be routed through Google's servers.

2014 June 24, “Google Glass go on sale in the UK for £1,000”, in The Guardian