- traffic
- ▪ I. traffic traf‧fic 1 [ˈtræfɪk] noun [uncountable]1. the movement of planes, ships, trains etc from one place to another:
• a telecommunications network for controlling air traffic.
• The airline said passenger traffic dropped 29% in February.
traffic of• the extensive traffic of Chinese goods to Canada
conˈtainer ˌtraffic TRANSPORTthe movement of goods using containers:• By some estimates, US container traffic will rise by 4% next year.
3. COMPUTING the movement of computer data or other electronic information from one place to another:• The three companies now control 90% of the nation's phone traffic.
• a digital service used for data traffic
4. MARKETING the number of people buying a particular product or using a particular service:• If consumer spending picks up, there will be keen competition for consumer traffic.
— see also page traffic[m0] ▪ II. traffic traffic 2 verb trafficked PTandPPX trafficking PRESPARTXtraffic in something phrasal verb [transitive]to buy and sell illegal goods:• They were accused of trafficking in arms and drugs.
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Ⅰ.traffic UK US /ˈtræfɪk/ noun [U]► TRANSPORT all the vehicles that are on a road or all the aircraft, trains, or ships that are along a route or in an area at a particular time: air/rail/road traffic »All commercial air traffic in the area has been cancelled.
»Rome has a video tracking system installed to help reduce traffic congestion.
»Banks study migration and traffic trends in deciding where to locate branches.
► TRANSPORT, COMMERCE people or goods transported by road, air, train, or ship, as a business: »The loss of passenger and freight traffic to ferries and low cost airlines have forced Eurotunnel to produce yet another recovery programme.
► IT the amount of data moving between computers or systems at a particular time: »We need a telecom infrastructure that can handle fast-growing internet traffic.
»They need to convert to broadband to cope with the growing volume of data and voice traffic.
► MARKETING the number of people buying goods or using a service at a particular time: »Many casino companies produced solid earnings from heavy traffic during the New Year's holiday.
»The sites that are attracting traffic are professional blogs.
► the illegal trade of goods or people: »the brutal trade in human traffic
traffic in/of sth »Most of the traffic of narcotics is not detected.
→ See also FOOT TRAFFIC(Cf. ↑foot traffic), PAGE TRAFFIC(Cf. ↑page traffic), STORE TRAFFIC(Cf. ↑store traffic)Ⅱ.traffic UK US /ˈtræfɪk/ verb [T] (trafficking, trafficked)► to buy and sell goods or people illegally: »He pleaded no contest to trafficking 10,000 pounds of marijuana.
traffic sb/sth somewhere »An estimated 600,000 to 800,000 victims are trafficked across international borders each year.
Financial and business terms. 2012.
