SHUNPIKE noun (shuhn-pahyk)

noun
1. a side road taken instead of a turnpike or expressway to avoid tolls or to travel at a leisurely pace.

verb
1. to drive on a shunpike.


Quotes

... she proposed to Mr. Morris that he should take the shunpike for a change.
--*Frank R. Stockton,*The Captain's Toll-Gate, 1903


“Shunpiking is real,” he said, using an old term for avoiding toll roads.
--*Phil Patton,*"The Virtues of Avoiding Interstates," New York Times, August 5, 2007



Origin

Shunpike is a blend of the verb shun and the noun (turn)pike. The word was originally an Americanism and dates from the mid-19th century.