hitchhike

To hitchhike is to travel by standing beside a road and asking passing drivers to take you somewhere for free. People often connect it with cheap travel, adventure, and going where the road leads. It was once more common, but it is less common now because of safety concerns. You might do it while traveling across a country with very little money, or hear about someone doing it in a travel story.

The usual image is simple: a person with a bag, a sign, or a raised thumb, waiting for a driver to stop. The idea is not to book or pay for a ride in the normal way, but to depend on the kindness of strangers.

To hitchhike means to travel by getting free rides from drivers who are already going your way. A person who does this usually waits by the roadside, shows a thumb, holds up a sign, or in some other clear way asks strangers to stop and offer a ride. The word is mostly used for road travel, and it often brings to mind backpackers, young travelers, or people trying to get from one place to another without spending much money.

In everyday English, the idea is active, not accidental. If you hitchhike, you are not just given a lift by chance; you go out and look for one. Someone might hitchhike across part of a country during a long trip, hitchhike to the next town after missing a bus, or talk about having hitchhiked around Europe in their youth. The noun form, hitchhiking, refers to the activity itself: "Hitchhiking was more common then."

The word also carries a strong sense of risk and uncertainty. You depend on strangers, and you do not know when the next ride will come. Because of safety concerns, hitchhiking is less common than it used to be, and in some places people see it as unsafe, unusual, or even illegal in certain situations. Even so, the basic meaning stays the same: traveling by asking unknown drivers to take you along for free.