ply

Reader's Digest 5月号のMy Storyの記事の次ぎの文に出てきた "ply" の意味を覚えたい。
Few buses plied the roads then, so whenever Mak Esah and I made our periodical visits to town to see Mother, we had to walk. I loved these walks.
もう４０年程前になりますが、秋田県の秋田プライウッドという会社にコンピュータの設置に行った時に "plywood" の "ply" の意味、"usually in combinations, one of several layers of cloth or paper or wood as in plywood" を覚えました。また工具の "plyer/plier"(A variously shaped hand tool having a pair of pivoted jaws, used for holding, bending, or cutting.) の基になった動詞だろうとの認識はありますが、記事の "plied" は "run" と同じ様な意味のようです。辞書で確認します。
・Merriam-Webster's Online Dictionary: to go or travel regularly over, on, or through: jets plying the skies
・Cambridge Dictionaries Online: old-fashioned When a form of transport plies a particular route, it makes that journey regularlyHigh-speed trains regularly ply between Paris and Lyons.: This airline has been plying the transatlantic route for many years.
・American Heritage Dictionary: To traverse or sail over regularly: Trading ships plied the routes between coastal ports.
船の時代に使われるようになったようで、ちょっと古い言い方のようでもあります。