Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. a highwayman; thus in US a hold-up man.

1628		J. Clavell Recantation of an ill led Life 12: You licencious Rebels, that doe make Profession of this wicked course [...] would be term’d by me Knights of the Rodes.
1659		Catterpillers of this Nation Anatomized 2: The Cafe-Pad or Knight of the Road.
1665		Head Eng. Rogue I 248: Come my new and young Knight of the Road, be ruled by me.
1674		Jackson’s Recantation in C. Hindley Old Bk Collector’s Misc. 23: I met with three or four of my old acquaintance, Knights of the Road.
c.1698		B.E. Dict. Canting Crew n.p.: Knight of the Road, the chief Highwayman best Mounted and Armed.
1719		A. Smith Lives of Most Notorious Highway-men, etc. (1926) 208: Knight of the Road, the chief highwayman best mounted and armed, the stoutest fellow among them.
1725		New Canting Dict. [as cit. c.1698].
1737, 1759, 1760, 1776		Bailey Universal Etym. Eng. Dict. [as cit. c.1698].
1785, 1788, 1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
1811		Lex. Balatronicum.
1823		Egan Grose’s Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
1834		(con. 1737–9) W.H. Ainsworth Rookwood (1857) 251: Now that he is one of ‘us’, a mere Knight of the Road.
1842		Thackeray Catherine (1905) 580: The Ensign and I found ourselves regular knights of the road, before we knew where we were almost.
1845		J. Lindridge Sixteen-String Jack 147: Sixteen-stringed Jack the dashing knight of the road.
1869		J. Greenwood Seven Curses of London 115: The redoubtable dopings of the Knights of the Road.
1875		State Jrnl (Jefferson City, MO) 26 Feb. 5/2: They were met by Jesse James and Hines was rescuued by thiis ubiquitous and dare devil knight of the road.
1878		Dodge City Times (KS) 12 Jan. 3/3: The chivalrous knight of the road had no stain of blood upon his hands.
1884		A. Griffiths Chronicles of Newgate 75: Knights of the road have already begun to operate [i.e. in 1630s]; they have already the brevet rank of captain.
1884		Lloyd’s Wkly Newspaper 14 Dec. 12/4: A Modern Knight of the Road —A case of alleged attempted highway robbery came before the Hastings magistrates.
1892		Bath Chron. 10 Mar. 6/1: Hogarth has placed a typical highway [...] not as the dashing knight of the road [...] but sitting disconsolately by the fire in a gaming-house — cleaned out.
1898		S.F. Call 11 Oct. 3/4: A Portuguese[...] and a companion were stood up by a lone highwayman [...] The knight of the road obtained only a small sum in cash.
1900		Flynt & Walton Powers That Prey 211: ‘Keep ’em up now, young man, keep ’em up,’ commanded the knight of the road. ‘I got some more dates to-night, an’ I can’t linger with you long.’.
1903		S.F. Call 28 Apr. 9/1: A thrilling holdup occurred shortly after 11 o’clock last night [...] The driver threw some silver to the knight of the road.

2. (Aus.) a bushranger.

1864		Bell’s Life in Sydney 9 Jan. 2/6: A member of the Fighting Blues [...] while out on horseback last week with the ostensible purpose of bushranger-hunting, accidentally stumbled over one of the Knights of the Road [AND].
1874		Illus. Sydney News 27 June 6/1: As the precautions taken against recognition on this occasion, were much greater than those usually adopted by ‘Knights of the Road’, it is scarcely possible that even if arrested the evidence given will be sufficient to insure conviction [AND].
1891		Braidwood Dispatch 14 Jan. 2/5: Power the liberated bushranger [...] will revisit the scenes of some of his former exploits during his career as ‘knight of the road’ [AND].
1912		J. Bradshaw Highway Robbery under Arms (3rd edn) 7: The bushranger’s song was called for immediately. The young knight of the road cleared his throat [AND].

3. a commercial traveller.

1828		Sussex Advertiser 14 Apr. 4/3: Pitmen, colliers, bog-trotters, black-legs, ken-cadgers with their king’s motts, knights of the road, and also a few knights of the brush and moon.
1834		‘Jack Downing’ Andrew Jackson 69: If you can’t drink what I give you, I’ll set you down as some [...] dealer in fakements; or some knight of the road.
1885		Waco Examiner (TX) 29 Nov. 4/3: He asked the knight of the road if it was he who had taken his name in vain [...] The drummer said that he was the man.
1899		Dly Press (Newport News, VA) 17 Sept. n.p.: ‘When I was down in Alabama the other day,’ [...] said a knight of the road.
1909		Bemidji Dly Pioneer (MN) 19 Apr. n.p.: W.B. Dean, of Duluth, the travelling salesman [...] is a very popular ‘knight of the road’.
1922		Edgefield Advertiser (SC) 31 May 9/1: Edgar Hart, a popular knight of the road, who travels [etc.].
1934		Townsville Daily Bulletin (Qld) 1 Mar. 10/4: Spottin’ a couple of commercial travellers [...] I gets it in one. Waiting’ till them couple of knights of the road gets nearly opposite I slips the bag off my shoulder.
1984		Partridge DSUE (8th edn) 653/1: late C.19–20.

4. (Aus./US) a tramp.

1893		Big Stone Gap Post (Wise Co., VA) 13 Apr. 1/6: The ‘Knights of the Road,’ as they call themselves [...] keep up regular communication with each other by means of a sign language unintelligible save to the initiated. these signs indicate where to go, what places to avoid.
1894		J. London Tramp Diary in Jack London On the Road (1979) 36: I found that two Knights of the road [...] had most obligingly built a roaring fire.
1901		Chicago Eagle 14 Sept. 7/2: He was approached by a knight of the road, who said he had pattered oveer the pike from Providence.
1908		Arizona Repub. (Phoenix, AZ) 8 Jan. 6/3: The police last night arrested a knight of the road [...] The hobo claimed he had purchased the garment.
1914		Ade ‘The New Fable of the Marathon in the Mud’ in Ade’s Fables 289: Now he could give the Cackle to all the Knights of the Road who had blown their Substance along the gay White Ways of Crawfordsville, Bucyrus, and Sedalia.
1920		Wash. Herald (DC) 9 Dec. 3/3: Thomas Byrd, a knight of the road, walked up to Policeman Thornhill [...] and asked for a place to sleep. The policeman escorted him to the lockup.
1926		J. Black You Can’t Win (2000) 115: Johnnie was a typical knight of the road. He believed that beds were for sick people in hospitals, that room rent was wild extravagance, and paying fare on the railroad nothing but ostentatious.
1936		W.A. Gape Half a Million Tramps 325: The ‘Hoboes’ Union’ [...] has waged a fight not only on behalf of the ‘Knights of the Road’, but of all homeless poor persons.
1949		Cheltenham Chron. 1 Oct. 8/7: Claimants to such a posiotion of regal raggedness [...] anonymous ‘Knights of the Road’.
1949		Monteleone Criminal Sl. (rev. edn).
1981		C. Hope Separate Development 75: He sold me a packet a few years back. [...] A sound chap, your Dad. Knight of the Road.

5. someone on a walking or cycling holiday.

1932

M. Marshall Travels of Tramp-Royal 273: Round a huge crackling woodfire in the mouth of the cave sat six rollicking knights of the road.