traveling salesman
Học thuậtThân thiện
Definition
- Noun:
- A traveling salesman: A commercial agent whose work involves journeying to visit clients or potential customers at their locations, rather than selling from a fixed store or office. This role is traditionally associated with covering a specific geographic territory or route.
Usage
- The term is used to describe a person whose primary job function is to solicit orders or sell goods while traveling.
- It often implies regular, repeated trips within an assigned region.
Examples
- Noun:
- The traveling salesman visited every small town in the state.
- His father worked for decades as a traveling salesman for a textile company.
- Before the internet, many businesses relied on traveling salesmen to reach distant customers.
Advanced Usage
- "Traveling salesman problem" (TSP): A famous algorithmic problem in computer science and operations research that involves finding the most efficient route for a hypothetical salesman to visit a set of cities and return to the origin. This usage is a technical extension of the core concept.
- The logistics company used software to solve a complex traveling salesman problem for its delivery routes.
Variants and Related Words
- Sales representative (sales rep): A more modern and general term for someone who sells products or services, which may or may not involve travel.
- Commercial traveler: A formal synonym, chiefly used in British English.
- Road warrior: (Informal) A modern term for any professional who spends excessive time traveling for business.
Synonyms
- Itinerant merchant
- Commercial traveler
- Road salesman
Related Phrases
- On the road: A phrase describing the state of traveling for work, often applicable to a traveling salesman.
- The job kept him on the road for three weeks every month.
Noun
- a salesman who travels to call on customers