way

▪ I. way, n.¹
    (weɪ)
    Forms: 1 weᵹ, North. woeᵹ, 2–3 weiȝ, 2–6 wei, 4–6 weie, weye, 3 wæi, wæiȝ, waiȝ, weȝ, Orm. weȝȝe, 4–5 weiȝe, 3–6 wai, wey, 4 veie, wa, weieȝe, wie, wye, 4–5 veye, 4, 6 vay(e, 4–7 waie, 4–8 waye, 5 whay, weij, 4–6 wy, 9 Sc. wye, 3– way. pl. 4 waiis, 5 weyse, waiez, waiss, wayse, weyys.
    [Com. Teut.: OE. weᵹ str. masc. = OFris. wei, wi (WFr. wei, NFr. wāi), OS. weg (MLG. wech), (M)Du. weg, OHG. weg (MHG. wec, weg-, Mod.G. weg), ON. veg-r (Sw. väg, Da. vei), Goth. wig-s:—OTeut. *weᵹo-z, f. *weᵹ- (:*waᵹ-: *wǣᵹ-) to move, journey, carry (see weigh v., wain, waw n.¹ and v.¹, wey):—Indogermanic *wegh- (:*wogh-), found in L. vehĕre to carry, Gr. ὄχος (:—*wogho-s) vehicle, Skr. vah to journey, carry. The L. via, way, formerly regarded as cognate, is now generally referred to a different root. The sense-development of the Eng. word, however, has been to some extent influenced by L. via and its descendant F. voie (see also voye, woye), of both which it has always been the normal translation. Many of the uses are of Biblical origin: the Heb. dérek, and the Gr. ὁδός in Hellenistic use (Vulg. via, all Eng. versions way) have a very wide range of meaning.]
    I. Road, path.
    * for passage of persons, animals, vehicles.
    1. a. gen. A track prepared or available for travelling along; a road, street, lane, or path. Now esp. in phrases like beside, over, across the way, the other side (of) the way, to cross the way, etc.

c 950 Lindisf. Gosp. Matt. xx. 30 And heonu tuoeᵹe blindo sittende æt weᵹ [c 975 Rushw. bi ðæm weᵹe; c 1000 Ags. Gosp. wiþ ðone weᵹ; 1382 Wyclif besidis the weye; Vulg. secus viam]. c 1055 Byrhtferth's Handboc in Anglia VIII. 303 Forðon we sittað ymb þam weᵹe wædliende mid timeus sunu. c 1205 Lay. 524 He ferde..to þan ilke weie þe he..wuste þat þe king mid his ferde forð sculde iwenden. Ibid. 5511 Heo þohten heom beon on fest þer þe hulles weore mest & senden heom arewen i þon weie narewe. a 1300 K. Horn 1304 (Camb. MS.) Þe kniȝt him aslepe lay Al biside þe way. c 1330 Arth. & Merl. 7404 Þer was a launde of noblay Where come to gider seuen way. c 1350 Will. Palerne 1732 Abide ȝou in a brod weie bi a large mile. c 1475 Rauf Coilȝear 394 Tak thy hors and thy harnes in the morning, For to watche weill the wayis. 1579 Burghley in Nicolas Sir C. Hatton (1847) 126 Approaching to the house, being led by a large, long, straight fair way, I found [etc.]. 1585 Higins Junius' Nomencl. 389/1 Compitum,..a waye where manye wayes doe meete. 1585 T. Washington tr. Nicholay's Voy. i. xii, A bridge..vnder the which is a waye to an old ruined Church. 1632 Lithgow Trav. x. 433, I saw..women trauayling the way, or toyling at home, carry their Infants about their neckes. 1700 T. Brown Amusem. Ser. & Com. 127, I cross'd the way to a Book⁓sellers. 1831 James Phil. Augustus ii, Instead of attempting to continue the way along the side of the hill..a single arch had been thrown over the narrow ravine, and the road carried on..on the other side. 1834 Dickens Sk. Boz, Boarding-ho. ii, He called out to a gentleman on the opposite side of the way. 1835 Ibid., Streets—Morning, Mr. Todd's young man just steps over the way. 1886 C. E. Pascoe Lond. To-day xxxi. (ed. 3) 287 The War Office is altogether out of keeping with the clubs upon the same side of the way. 1887 J. Ashby-Sterry Cucumber Chron. 5 The village is..one long street. On either side of the way are picturesque little cottages. 1887 Ruskin Præterita II. v. 155 For the most part, no English creature ever does see farther than over the way. 1904 H. Belloc Old Road 96 A sunken way of great antiquity leads directly from St. Catherine's Hill down to the river. 1910 D. G. Hogarth in Encycl. Brit. I. 248/1 The latest type of tomb is a flatly vaulted chamber approached by a horizontal or slightly inclined way, whose sides converge above.

transf. 1594 Hooker Eccl. Pol. i. iii. §2 If the Moone should wander from her beaten way.

    b. In figurative context, with reference to a metaphorical walking or travelling. parting of the ways: see parting vbl. n. 2 b.
    † way of indulgence: said of the Virgin Mary as the medium or channel of access to divine mercy. (Cf. Christ's words in John xiv. 6, ‘I am the Way..; no man cometh to the Father but by me’.)

c 825 Vesp. Psalter xxvi. 12 Fot..min stod in weᵹe ðæm rehtan. c 950 Lindisf. Gosp. Matt. iii. 3 Ᵹearuas woeᵹ drihtnes [Vulg. parate viam Domini]. Ibid. vii. 13 Rum⁓welle weᵹ ðiu lædas to lose. c 1200 Vices & Virtues 21 Ðar ðe wei is slider and we lihtliche to fællen. c 1400 Pety Job 268 in 26 Pol. Poems xxv. 129 All the pathes thow hast mette That euer I yede in wey or walle. c 1420 Hoccleve Mother of God 8 Modir of mercy, wey of indulgence. 1471 Caxton Recuyell (Sommer) 213 Thou haste passid the strayte waye and passage of Infortune fro whens thou art yssued cler as the sonne. 1602 Shakes. Ham. ii. ii. 277 But in the beaten way of friendship, What make you at Elsonower? 1605 Bacon Adv. Learn. ii. xi. §1. 45 The trauaile therein taken, seemeth to haue ben rather in a Maze, than in a way. 1738 Wesley Hymns ‘Join all the glorious Names’ v, O let my Feet ne'er..rove, nor seek the crooked Way. 1898 M. Pemberton Phantom Army i. vii, The way before him was no longer hidden in darkness. He saw that it lay straight—the road to the prison or the scaffold.

    c. A main road connecting different parts of a country. Now rare except in names of Roman roads, as the rendering of L. via. Cf. highway.
    † the king's way: = the king's highway.

a 900 O.E. Martyrol. 28 Aug. 156 On þæm weᵹe þe æt Rome is nemned Salaria. c 1000 ælfric Num. xxi. 22 Swa swa se weᵹ lið we farað [Vulg. via regia gradiemur]. 1297 R. Glouc. (Rolls) 169 Veire weies manion þer beþ in englonde, Ac voure mest of alle..þoru þe olde kinges imad. 1313 Newminster Cartul. (Surtees) 51 De Sticeleydike per Heddeley wai usque en le Spenstrete. c 1450 Godstow Reg. 541, ij. acris of arable lond..strecche them-self fro the north toward the sowthe beside the kyngis wey. 1482 Cov. Leet Bk. 510 Þe grounde..in brede fro London weye stretchyng vnto a Corner of a Close of þe Trinite Gildes. c 1489 Caxton Sonnes of Aymon ix. 227 There was a waye crossed in four, the one waye was towarde Fraunce. 1533 Bellenden Livy v. 227 Ane tempil was commandit to be maid in þe new way quhare þe voce was herde. 1535 Coverdale Judges v. 6 In the tyme of Iael the wayes fayled. 1685 Stillingfl. Orig. Brit. ii. 63 Whereever the Romans inhabited, they may be traced by their Ways, by their Buildings [etc.]. 1688 Holme Armoury iii. 198/2 The Overseers of the Ways are Men chosen yearly for to see, and..put in repair all decayed Highways..within the Bounds of the Parish. 1805 Scott Last Minstr. i. xxvi, Broad on the left before him lay, For many a mile, the Roman way. 1840 Arnold Hist. Rome xxxii. II. 288 Nor will the mightiest works of modern engineers ever rival the fame of the Appian Way.

    d. transf. In Milky Way and various synonyms.

c 725 Corpus Gloss. (Hessels) U 174 Uia secta, iringes uueᵹ. 1384 [see Milky Way]. 1555 Mylke way [see milk n. 10]. 1555 Mylke whyte way [see milk-white a. b.]. 1563 Fulke Meteors (1571) 38 The mylke waye called of some the waye to saint Iames, and Watlyng streate. 1594 Blundevil Exerc., Cosmogr. i. xxi. (1597) 158 The milke-white impression in heauen, like vnto a white way, called..of the common people our Ladies Way. 1775 Blomefield's Hist. Norf. V. 839 They believed..the Milky Way was appointed by Providence to point out the particular place and residence of the virgin, beyond all other places, and was, on that account, generally in that age, called Walsingham-Way; and I have heard old people of this country, so to call and distinguish it some years past. 1844 M. A. Richardson Local Hist. Table Bk. Leg. Div. II. 86 The Via lactea, or ‘milky way,’ which the peasantry of the North frequently designate ‘the way’.

    e. A road considered with reference to the condition of its surface or to difficulties or dangers of transit.

a 900 O.E. Martyrol. 18 Apr. 58 Ðæt ða wildan hors scealden iornan [on] hearde weᵹas in westenne & him þa limo all [to] brecan. 1418 in E.E. Wills 31, I be-quethe to the mendyng of the feble & foule weye beside Portmannes Crosse..xl s. 1577 Knaresb. Wills (Surtees) I. 126 To amend a pece of evill waie betwene my house and Hampistwhaite, xij d. 1588 Shakes. L.L.L. v. ii. 926 When blood is nipt, and waies be fowle. 1632 Lithgow Trav. i. 10, I bequeathed my proceedings to God,..and my feete to the hard brusing way. 1663 Patrick Parab. Pilgr. ii. (1687) 5 The weather was cold, the ways dirty and dangerous. c 1710 C. Fiennes Diary (1888) 135 To Litchfield is 5 mile more all very good way mostly Gravel. 1712 Arbuthnot John Bull iii. ix, I hope thou wilt not come too heavy laden, to spoil my Ways. 1789 Durnford & East Cases K.B. (1790) III. 263 If the way be founderous and out of repair, the public have a right to go on the adjoining land. 1846 A. Marsh Father Darcy xxviii, ‘How are the ways?’ ‘Deep and difficult enough, please your honour.’ 1849 Macaulay Hist. Eng. I. iii. 379 In winter, when the ways were bad and the nights long. 1871 M. Legrand Cambr. Freshm. 301 A heap of smaller stones, placed there at the expense of the parish, for the purpose of mending the way.

    f. A place of passage, e.g. an opening made through a crowd, a door or gate, etc. Also way in, way out. Hence Way Out sign. Cf. archway, doorway, gateway. Also fig.

c 1250 Gen. & Ex. 3244 On twel doles delt ist ðe se, xii. weiȝes ðer-in ben faiȝer and fre. c 1400 Destr. Troy 5932 In the brest of the batell,..He ffrusshet so felly freikes to ground; Made wayes full wide þe weghis among. Ibid. 6513. c 1400 Mandev. (E.E.T.S.) viii. 36 And men seyn þat the wlcanes ben weyes of helle. a 1400–50 Wars Alex. 1324 Quare althire-thickest was þe thrange þurȝe þaim he rynnes, And makis a wai wyde enoȝe waynes to mete. 1851 Mrs. Browning Casa Guidi Wind. ii. 217 Here fortitude can never cut a way Between the Austrian muskets, out of thrall. 1892 C. Taylor Witness of Hermas 126 The gate is the Son of God. This is the one way-in [εἴσοδος] to the Lord. 1898 G. B. Shaw Plays II. You never can tell ii. stage direct., Near the parapet there lurks a way to the kitchen. masked by a little trellis porch. 1914 S. Low in Edin. Rev. Oct. 261 To a Prussian statesman it seems more natural to ‘hack a way’ through the territory of an unoffending neighbour than it would be to public men else⁓where. a 1926 Mod. The words ‘Way out’ are painted on the door. 1972 L. Meynell Death by Arrangement xiii. 178 Hooky was forced to follow him along an uncomfortably empty platform towards the ‘Way Out’ sign. 1982 J. O'Faolain Obedient Wife iii. 59 Just follow the Way Out signs.

    g. Applied to a path in a wood or through the fields. See also green a. 2 b.

13.. K. Alis. 6055 (Laud MS.), Hij hadden..Calk trappes made ynowe In wayes & vnder wood bowe. 1484 Caxton Fables of Auian xxii, The snowe had couerd al the wayes [in the forest]. 1530 Palsgr. 286/1 Way in a woode syde, sente.

    h. Fortification. A passage left between walls or buildings. covered († covert) way (= F. chemin couvert), a passage running along the top of the counterscarp, protected from the enemy's fire by a parapet. (See covered ppl. a. 6, covert a. 1 b.) † way of the rounds (= F. chemin des rondes): see quot. 1704.

1481 Caxton Godeffroy clxxiii. 257 They..dyde do make engyns,..castellys, chattes, and wayes couerd, moche grete plente. 1704 J. Harris Lex. Techn. I, Way of the Rounds..is a space left for the Passage of the Rounds between the Rampart and the Wall of a Fortify'd Town.

    i. Railways. line of way, a track formed by a pair of rails. See also permanent way, six-foot way, wagon-way.
    ** for passage of things.
    † 2. Phys. A duct or channel of any kind in the body of man or other animal. Obs.
    [tr. mod.L. via; cf. primæ viæ (lit. ‘first ways’) the alimentary canal.]

c 1425 tr. Arderne's Treat. Fistula, etc. 21 Þat may be knowen by..feblynez of þe pacient and if it haue perced þe waiez of þe vryne. 1541 Copland Guydon's Quest. I. iv, The bladder..receyueth the superfluyte vrynall by two longe wayes that descende fro the kydnees. 1615 Crooke Body of Man 281 Wee must therefore enquire further for the cause of this sterility or barrennesse and not impute it to the interception of the wayes.

    3. pl. a. Naut. (See quot. 1867.)

1639 in Foster Crt. Min. E. Ind. Comp. (1907) 332 [The use of one of the..docks with its] shores and waies [to fit and prepare the Cæsar]. a 1647 Pette in Archaeologia XII. 258 The smaller [ship] ..was so ill struck upon the launching ways, that she could by no means be put off, which did somewhat discontent his majesty. 1748 Anson's Voy. iii. iii. 325 A dry dock was dug for the bark, and ways laid from thence quite into the sea, to facilitate the bringing her up. 1864 S. P. Fox Kingsbridge Estuary xiii. 163 When once the boat is close on the shore, the dogs are on the look out for the pieces of wood, technically called ways, which are placed underneath the boats to draw them up on the beach. It is very rarely that a single way is lost. 1867 Smyth Sailor's Word-bk., Ways, balks laid down for rolling weights along. Launching ways, two parallel platforms of solid timber, one on each side of the keel of a vessel while building, and on which her cradle slides on launching.

transf. 1840 R. H. Dana Bef. Mast xxix, Smooth strips of wood, well oiled, called ‘ways’ were placed above and below, to cause the book [sc. a packet of hides] to slide in easily.

    b. Parallel wooden rails or planks, forming an inclined plane for heavy loads to slide down upon.

1868 B. J. Lossing The Hudson 264 The ice, cut in blocks from the lake above..is sent down upon wooden ‘ways’, that wind through the forest.

    c. Mech. Parallel sills forming a track for the slides of the uprights of a planing machine, the carriage of a lathe, or the like.

1869 Rankine Cycl. Mach. & Hand-tools Plate I 5, Improved Planing Machine... These uprights are so arranged as to slide in ways..provided for the purpose in the sides of the stationary platform.

    II. Course of travel or movement.
    4. a. A line or course of travel or progression (whether direct or circuitous) by which a place may be reached, or along which a person or thing may pass. Const. to, into, out of (hence with in, out advs.). to go a person's way, to go along with him.

c 1000 Ags. Gosp. Matt. ii. 12 Hi on oðerne weᵹ [Vulg. per aliam viam] in hyra rice ferdon. c 1205 Lay. 26915 Heom ladden twelue of þan leod-folke þa..þa weiȝes [c 1275 weyes] cuðen. c 1250 Gen. & Ex. 3255 Biforen hem fleȝ an skiȝe briȝt ðat night hem made ðe weiȝe liȝt. a 1300 Cursor M. 11736 We wil þe wai ga bi þe se. c 1300 Havelok 772 Ful we[l] he couþe þe rithe wei To lincolne. 1362 Langl. P. Pl. A. vi. 24 Const þou wissen vs þe wey wher þat he dwelleþ? 1420 J. Stokes in Ellis Orig. Lett. Ser. iii. I. 68 He hadde sent forth Mayster Jon Lobaim vn to zow by the nexte wey. c 1440 Generydes 5923 With hym ther went Sygrem to be his gide, Costyng the contre many dyuers way, And so came he in to perse the redy waye. 1470–85 Malory Arthur i. xi. 51 He had the hoost Northward the pryuyest wey that coude be thoughte vnto the foreist of Bedegrayne. 1585 T. Washington tr. Nicholay's Voy. ii. vi, An vniversall flood, which by croked wayes finally issueth into the Sea. 1604 E. G[rimstone] D'Acosta's Hist. Indies iii. iii. 127 The waies at Sea are not as at Land, to returne the same way they passe. 1676 Cotton Angler ii. ii. 12, I hope our way does not lye over any of these [hills]; for I dread a precipice. 1682 Wheler Journ. Greece vi. 475, I return'd by the same way. 1732 T. Lediard Sethos II. ix. 293 There the way was stopp'd by mountains. 1818 Scott Hrt. Midl. xiii, Is the Cowgate Port a nearer way to Liberton..than Bristo Port? 1820 Keats Eve St. Agnes xl, Down the wide stairs a darkling way they found. 1849 Macaulay Hist. Eng. I. iii. 371 If he asked his way to St. James's, his informants sent him to Mile End. 1856 G. W. Curtis Prue & I iii. (1892) 113 Mr. Bourne..hospitably asked if I were going his way. His way was towards the southern end of the island. 1865 Mrs. Newby Comm. Sense li. III. 15 Are you coming my way, father?

Proverbs. 1562 J. Heywood Prov. & Epigr. (1867) 77 There be mo waies to the wood than one. 1635 Quarles Embl. iv. Epig. 2 The next way Home's the farthest way about. 1661 Boyle Style Script. (1675) 56 The Longest way about is the nearest Way Home. 1669 Sturmy Mariner's Mag. vii. xvii. 27 There is several ways to the Wood besides one.

    b. fig. with conscious reference to literal travelling. † to take the way of death: to die.

a 1225 Leg. Kath. 1752 Þer me unwreah me þe wei, Þet leadeð to liue. 1297 R. Glouc. (Rolls) 5320 Þe king aldred sone þo þen wey of deþe nom. c 1380 Wyclif Sel. Wks. III. 106 By þese wytty wordes of oure Lord Jesus Christ, mowe malicious men..knowe þat þey beþ in þe weye to helleward. 1605 Shakes. Macb. ii. iii. 21 That go the Primrose way to th' euerlasting Bonfire. 1646 Gataker Mistake Removed 38 There is no new way to Heaven now, but the same that ever was. a 1729 J. Rogers Nineteen Serm. v. (1735) 97 Every Path before us appears beset with Snares and Dangers, Ways in which we must walk with Fear and Trembling. a 1832 Mackintosh Revol. 1688 i. (1834) 11 Having found a way to court through some of those who ministered to the pleasures of the King,..he made his value known by [etc.]. 1864 Newman Apol. iv. §2 (1913) 296 There are but two alternatives, the way to Rome, and the way to Atheism. 1890 W. Booth (title) In darkest England and the way out.

    c. Phrases. to hold, keep (a certain) way: to follow it without deviation. to know one's way around (or about): to know how to get from place to place in a neighbourhood; fig. to know how to act in any emergency; to have shrewdness born of experience. to light (a person) the way: to hold out a light to enable a person to direct his course. † there lies your way: please to go away. † here lies our, your way: it is time to go. everything coming (or going) one's way: everything happening in one's favour. to go separate ways: to cease to work or operate together and follow different paths.
    For to ask, find, lose, miss the way, one's way, to feel († out) one's way, to clear, lead, show, stop the way, see those verbs.

c 1200 Trin. Coll. Hom. 161 Ðan þe safarinde men seð þe sa stere, hie wuten sone wuderward hie sullen weie holden. c 1386 Chaucer Man of Law's T. 709 This Messager on morwe whan he wook Vn to the Castel halt the nexte way. 1420 J. Stokes in Ellis Orig. Lett. Ser. iii. I. 68 To declar vn to zow the tyme of hys comyng, and the weyes also the qwych he wele holde. 1548 Hall Chron., Hen. VI, 173 b, Knowyng by his espials whiche waie therle kept. 1565 [see light v.2 4]. 1596 Shakes. Tam. Shr. iii. ii. 212 The dore is open sir, there lies your way. 1601 ― Twel. N. i. v. 216 Will you hoyst sayle sir, heere lies your way. 1606 ― Tr. & Cr. iv. i. 79 Here lyes our way. 1616 T. Draxe Bibl. Scholast. 29 Contempt. Heere is the doore, and there is the way. 1815 Scott Guy M. xi, ‘Certainly, sir,’ said Mrs. MacCandlish, and hastened to light the way. 1867 All Year Round 13 July 56/2 In this case the tramp who ‘knows his way about’ knows what to do. 1903 G. B. Shaw Maxims for Revolutionists in Man & Superman 242 In moments of progress the noble succeed, because things are going their way. 1903 Red Bk. June 167/2 Everything was coming his way. 1921 Galsworthy To Let i. v. 52 ‘That's a young woman who knows her way about,’ he said. 1932 Kipling Limits & Renewals 385 They must be enjoying themselves now at a theatre. Everything's coming their way. [1935 N. L. McClung Clearing in West xix. 152 Jack knew his way around, having been here many times the winter before... He drove straight down to Pacific Street to the Farmer's Home.] 1938 Times 1 Jan. 10/4 Much was certainly lost when the original directorate decided to go separate ways, as from the separation both parties seem to have suffered. 1943 O. Hammerstein Oklahoma! (1947) 18, I got a beautiful feelin' Ev'rythin's goin' my way. 1957 ‘R. West’ Fountain Overflows xi. 241 And whatever you could say about my Ma, you couldn't say she didn't know her way about. 1968 H. R. F. Keating Inspector Ghote hunts Peacock vii. 95 That girl was a pretty slick chick..She knew her way around. 1973 G. Jenkins Cleft of Stars v. 60, I cursed that old rifle for letting me down at the moment when everything was going my way.

    † d. ? Guidance, direction. Obs.

c 1380 Wyclif Sel. Wks. III. 340 Þe þridde part of þe Chirche fiȝtiþ here aftir Crist, and takiþ ensaumple and weie of him to come to hevene as he cam. 1450–1530 Myrr. Our Ladye iii. 307 Lyghte to the blynde, way to the croked.

    e. to go the wrong way: of food or drink, to go into the windpipe instead of the gullet when being swallowed.

1764 Phil. Trans. LV. 42 An acquaintance..was killed by a piece of chesnut, which went the wrong way, as we commonly express it. 1860 Hughes Tom Brown Oxf. iv, In a constant sort of mild epileptic fit, from laughter, and wine going the wrong way. 1860 O. W. Holmes Elsie Venner vii. (1887) 94 He's swallered somethin' the wrong way.

    f. Mode of transport.

1708 Caldwell Papers (Maitl. Club) I. 214, I have inquired what way my goods may safeliest be sent, and am told that by Holstein ships.

    g. Way of the Cross (= eccl.L. Via Crucis): a series of images or pictures representing the ‘Stations of the Cross’ (see station n. 23), ranged round the interior of a church, or on the road to a church or shrine; also, the series of devotions prescribed to be used at these stations in succession.

1868 Walcott Sacred Archæol. 554 The stations of the way of the cross..are— (1) the condemnation of our Lord; (2) Christ bearing His cross; (3) [etc.].

    5. a. Course or line of actual movement.

1382 Wyclif Prov. xxx. 19 The weie of an egle in heuene, the weie of the shadewe eddere on a ston, the weie of a ship in the myd se. 1632 Lithgow Trav. vii. 327 Our way is Serpent like. 1665–6 Phil. Trans. I. 6 At what Angle the Way of the Comet cuts the æquator. 1683 Hooke in Birch Hist. Roy. Soc. (1757) IV. 231, I shewed an instrument..by which the way of a ship through the sea might be exactly measured. 1715 Desaguliers Fires Impr. 146 The winding Lines..shew the way of the Air in different Constructions of Chimneys. 1735 Somerville Chase iv. 431 See there he dives along! Th' ascending Bubbles mark his gloomy Way. 1868 Lockyer Elem. Astron. vii. (1879) 261 The direction of the Earth's motion in its orbit, called the Earth's Way.

    † b. The wake of a vessel. Obs.

c 1565 J. Sparke Sir J. Hawkins' 2nd Voy. in Hakluyt (1589) 535 [The alligator] plunged into the water, making a streame like the way of a boate. c 1635 N. Boteler Dial. Sea Services (1685) 300 In speaking of the Wake of a Ship..You said that it was also called the Way. 1706 Phillips (ed. Kersey), Way of a Ship, the smooth Water that she makes a-stern when under Sail.

    c. Engraving. (See quot. 1891.)

1874 Willshire Anc. Prints iii. 96 This operation..consists in rocking the cradle to and fro in certain directions or ‘ways’, determined by a plan or scale that enables the engraver to pass over the plate in very many directions without any one of them being repeated. 1891 Adeline's Art Dict., Way (Engrav.) the series of parallel paths hewn out by the rocker on a mezzotint is technically termed a way.

    6. a. In generalized use: Opportunity for passage or advance; absence of obstruction to forward movement; hence fig. freedom of action, scope, opportunity. In various phrases, as give way (see give v. 49), have way (see 24), make way (see 25); also ellipt. way! (= ‘make way’).

a 1400–50 Bk. Curtasye 277 In Babees Bk., Ȝif þou go with a-noþer at þo gate, And ȝe be bothe of on astate, Be curtasye and let hym haue þe way. 1634 Sir T. Herbert Trav. 188 If any vulgar fellow meet them, they presently shake and vibrate their Swords..and so obtaine the way without opposition. 1714 in Jrnl. Friends Hist. Soc. (1918) 29 Having seen the comfort of our labours I found my way opened for a Return [sc. home]. 1850 Tennyson In Mem. cii, Poor rivals in a losing game, That will not yield each other way. 1898 A. Balfour To Arms v, Once or twice I saw a courier flying north,..and clearing the road with a loud shout of ‘Way, way!’

    b. in legal documents sometimes equivalent to right of way.

1766 Blackstone Comm. II. iii. 35 A fourth species of incorporeal hereditaments is that of ways; or the right of going over another man's ground. 1790 Durnford & East Cases K.B. III. 766 The plaintiff..by reason of his possession thereof was entitled to a certain way from the said messuage unto into through and over a certain close of the defendant &c. unto and into the king's common highway &c. and so back again &c. 1803 C. Barton Elem. Convey. (1821) III. 180 If a copyholder has had time out of mind, a way over another's copyhold. 1832 Act 2 & 3 Will IV, c. 71 §2 No Claim which may be lawfully made at the Common Law, by Custom, Prescription, or Grant, to any Way or other Easement, [etc.].

    7. a. Travel or motion along a particular route or in a particular direction. to take (a place, etc.) in one's way: to visit in the course of one's journey.

c 1000 Sax. Leechd. II. 16 Læcedom ᵹif mon on langum weᵹe teoriᵹe. a 1400 Minor Poems fr. Vernon Ms. xlvii. 121 Ᵹif þou haue eny wey to wende, I rede þou here a masse..In þe Morennynge. 14.. Tundale's Vis. (Cott. MS.) 42 But Tundale hadde a harde warnynge, For as he yn a transynge lay Hys sowle was in a dredefull way, There as hit sawe mony a hydwysse payne Ere hit come to þe body agayne. c 1430 Chev. Assigne 220 The grypte eyþur a staffe in here honde & on here wey strawȝte. 1568 Grafton Chron. II. 262 They were well onward on their way toward Gascoyn. 1590 Shakes. Com. Err. iv. iii. 92 Belike his wife acquainted with his fits, On purpose shut the doores against his way. 1600 E. Blount tr. Conestaggio 230 The ioints thereof [sc. of the boats] were so shaken and open with the waie. 1617 J. Taylor (Water P.) Three Weeks Observ. B 1, We past the way away by telling tales by turnes. 1697 Dryden æneis iii. 714 Our way we bend To Pallas. 1735 Johnson Lobo's Abyssinia, Descr. xi. 111, I left the place of my Abode, and took in my way four Fathers,..so that the Company..was five. 1741 C'tess Pomfret in C'tess Hartford's Corr. (1805) III. 166 Here we left the shore, but continued our way on very good roads, till [etc.]. 1777 Earl Carlisle in Jesse Selwyn & Contemp. (1844) III. 228 As to our motions,..We may take Chatsworth in our way. 1779 Storer Ibid. IV. 242, I shall look in upon you at Matson in my way. 1818 Scott Hrt. Midl. xl. The attendants on the execution began to pass the stationary vehicle in their way back to Carlisle. 1827 ― Highl. Widow i, There was some originality in the man's habits of thinking and expressing himself..which made his conversation amuse the way well enough. a 1863 Faber Hymn, ‘I was wandering’, As He came along His way.

    b. Qualified by poss. pron., the word often occurs as object or as adverbial accusative to the verb go (see go v. 21 b) and its synonyms, † fare, † fere (see fare v. 1, fere v.), wend, etc. From an early period my, his (etc.) way in these collocations were often nearly equivalent to ‘away’, and with this weakened sense they were formerly used with other verbs of motion, as flee (see flee v. 1 d), run (see run v. 34), come, pass, ride. In present literary use to go, wend one's way survive as archaisms; mod. dialects have only the imperatives go, come your (thy) way (or ways: see 23 b).

c 1205 [see flee v. 1 d]. c 1205 Lay. 25954 Ich wulle faren minne wæi. a 1250 Owl & Night. 308 Þe hauec folȝeþ gode rede & fliȝt his wei & lat him grede. c 1250 Gen. & Ex. 1429 Eliezer is went his wei. a 1325 Prose Psalter xviii. 6 He ioyed as a giaunt to erne his waye. 1390 Gower Conf. I. 94 ‘Ryd thanne forth thi wey’, quod sche. a 1400–50 Wars Alex. 133 Furþe on his fete withouten fole he passis his way. a 1450 Knt. de la Tour x. 14 Yef ye fare rudely and be cruell with hym [the hawk], he will fle his way and neuer come atte you. 1487 Cely Papers (Camden) 167 The Kynge..muste flee hys weye owte of the contrey. 1678 Bunyan Pilgr. i. 90 Then she railed on me, and I went my way. 1772 Cumberland Fashionable Lover ii. 23 Go your way for a simpleton, and say no more about the matter. 1837 Dickens Pickw. xviii, As he wended his way to the Peacock. Ibid. xxvi, Mr. Weller went his way back to the George and Vulture.

    c. In the Bible phrase to go the way of all the earth (Josh. xxiii. 14, 1 Kings ii. 2) meaning ‘to die’. Also in erroneous forms (due to confusion with other Bible passages), the way of all flesh, way of all living. (The way of all flesh has sometimes been used to mean the experience common to all men in their passage through life.)
    A passage (dated 900) in Birch's Cartul. Sax. II. 241 ‘Quando ælfred rex..viam vniverse carnis adiit’, shows that the substitution of ‘of all flesh’ (universæ carnis) for ‘of all the earth’ (universæ terræ) was current in med. Latin. The reading of the Douay Bible (quot. 1609) suggests that the substitution must have found its way into some printed copies of the Vulgate; also, the Plantin Concordance (1642) reads carnis s.vv. Caro and Ingredior, though elsewhere the two passages are cited with the reading terræ.

1597 Shakes. 2 Hen. IV, v. ii. 4 Hee's walk'd the way of Nature, And to our purposes, he liues no more. 1609 Bible (Douay) 1 Kings ii. 2, I enter into the way of all flesh [Vulg. universæ terræ]. Ibid., Josh. xxiii. 14. 1611 Heywood Golden Age iii. i. F 4 b, If I go by land, and mis-carry, then I go the way of all flesh. If I go by sea and mis-carry, then I go the way of all fish. 1809 Malkin Gil Blas i. v. ¶10, I heard that Don Rodrigo had gone the way of all flesh. 1835 Dickens Sk. Boz, Mr. Watkins Tottle i, He pardoned us off-hand, and allowed us something to live on till he went the way of all flesh. 1887 Murray's Mag. Sept. 422 His former retainer, Phil Judd, had long gone the way of all flesh, however seasoned.

jocularly. 1607 Dekker & Webster West-w. Hoe ii. ii, I saw him euen now going the way of all flesh (thats to say) towardes the Kitchin.

    d. In verbal phrases with the sense ‘to effect a forward movement by the action denoted by the verb’, e.g. in to force, push, squeeze one's way; also occas. with the sense ‘to accompany one's advance by the specified action’.

1694 Atterbury Serm., Isa. lx. 22 (1726) I. 101 In this manner the Prophet of the East hew'd out his way by the power of the Sword. 1697 Dryden Virg. Georg. iii. 843 The slow creeping Evil eats his way, Consumes the parching Limbs, and makes the Life his Prey. 1748 Richardson Clarissa (1768) VIII. 137 M{supc}Donald, being surrounded, attempted to fight his way thro', and wounded his man. 1750 Gray Elegy 3 The plowman homeward plods his weary way. 1770 Goldsm. Des. Vill. 42 No more thy glassy brook reflects the day, But, choked with sedges, works its weedy way. 1833 [see elbow v. 4]. 1836 Dickens Sk. Boz, Hosp. Patient, We..entered the office, in company with..as many dirty-faced spectators as could squeeze their way in. ― Ibid., Streets—Night, The muffin-boy rings his way down the little street. 1859 ― T. Two Cities ii. iii, The virtuous servant, Roger Cly, swore his way through the case at a great rate. 1883 Whitelaw Sophocles, Oed. Col. 717 The oar-blade wings its wondrous way, Sped by stout arms. 1892 Lady F. Verney Verney Mem. I. 3 If enemies forced their way into the house. 1897 J. L. Allen Choir Invisible ii, He failed to urge his way through the throng as speedily as he may have expected.

    † e. A journey, voyage; a pilgrimage. lit. and fig. Also = eyre. Obs.
    With quot. c 1325 cf. OF. ‘faire une voie a Saint Jacques’ quoted by Du Cange (s.v. Via) with date 1368.

a 1225 Ancr. R. 350 Þauh heo beon ine worldliche weie, as ich seide er, of pilegrimes, auh habbeð hore heorte euer toward heouene. c 1325 Metr. Hom. 53 It was a man..That til sain Jamis hit [= hight, promised] the way. 1382 Wyclif Gen. xxiv. 21 Wilnyng to wite whether the Lord had maad his weye welsom [Vulg. utrum prosperum iter suum fecisset Dominus], or noon. ? a 1400 Morte Arth. 553 He wylle wyghtlye in a qwhyle on his wayes hye. c 1400 Three Kings Cologne (1886) 56 Whan þey had spoke togedir and euerych of hem had tolde his purpos and þe cause of his weye. a 1500 in Arnolde's Chron. (1502) B ij b, That the citezens may recorde ther libarteis afore the kingis Justicis and mynystres what so euer notwythstandyng Statutis of the Wey or domes in the contrey made or shewyd oute. Ibid. C vj, And that the forsayd Citezens in the weys of Justice to the tour of London fro hensforward goyng, that they bee not lad by the lawes by which they were ledde in the Weys holden in the tymes of John and herry Somtyme kynge of englande.

    † f. the way's end: lit. the end of the journey; fig. the completion of a process. Obs.

1526 in Househ. Ord. (1790) 219 It shall be lawfull for the purveyour..to take..such Poultry stuff..paying unto them such prices..as the said purveyor..should have paid therefore at the wayes end. 1528 Tindale Obed. Chr. Man 141 b, Thou must therfore goo alonge by the scripture as by a lyne, vntyll thou come at Christ, which is the wayes ende and restynge place. 1662 Petty Taxes 84 The one [stuff] wanting nothing but tacking up, to be at its ways end; and the other tayloring..and several other particulars.

    g. to hold, keep one's way (cf. 4 c): to travel without interruption; fig. to continue one's course of action, to ‘keep going’. † to hold way, keep way: to keep pace (const. with or dative).

c 1375 Sc. Leg. Saints xi. (Simon & Jude) 326 Syne to þe eddris can þai sa; ‘ve commawnd ȝow to hald ȝour va’. 1598 Shakes. Merry W. iii. ii. 1 Nay keepe your way (little Gallant) you were wont to be a follower, but now you are a Leader. 1599 ― Much Ado i. i. 144, I would my horse had the speed of your tongue..but keepe your way a Gods name, I haue done. 1605 Bacon Adv. Learn. ii. vii. §2. 25 It seemeth best to keepe way with Antiquities, vsque ad aras. 1625 ― Ess., Fortune (Arb.) 377 When there be not Stonds, nor Restiuenesse in a Mans Nature. But that the wheeles of his Minde keepe way with the wheeles of his Fortune. 1640 Yorke Union Hon., Battles 63 She..had her fore mast broken off, which so hindred her sayle, that shee was unable to keepe way with the Fleete. 1706 E. Ward Wooden World Diss. (1708) 1 It flies so far, that no bird..but a Woodcock, can hold way with it. 1708 Constit. Watermen's Co. 82 All plying to keep Way, on forfeiture of 00. 00. 06. 1726 G. Shelvocke Voy. round World 2, I did not doubt but that I should be able to hold him away. 1818 Tuckey's Narr. Exped. R. Zaire Introd. p. xxvii, In running..from the Nore to the North Foreland,..she kept way with the transport. 1827 Scott Surg. Dau. xiii, The..reeds of the jungle were moving like the ripple of the ocean, when distorted by the course of a shark holding its way near the surface. 1848 Dickens Dombey x, People who have enough to do to hold their own way..had better be content with their own obligations and difficulties.

    † h. by the way of my soul (as an oath): by my soul's salvation. Obs.

1460 Paston Lett. I. 522 For be the weye of my sowle, this lond wer uttirly on done.

    i. Naut. Progress (of a ship or boat) through the water; rate of progress, velocity; impetus gained by a vessel in motion. to freshen way: see freshen v. 3.
    Cf. under way (38), from which this sense was perh. evolved.

1663 Davenant 2nd Pt. Siege of Rhodes ii. i, Those who withstand The Tide of Flood..Fall back when they in vain would onward row: We strength and way preserve by lying still. 1669 Sturmy Mariner's Mag. iv. vi. 160 If you sail against a Current, if it be swifter than the Ship's way, you fall a Stern. 1744 M. Bishop Life 15 She stood away for Brest, and we..fired a Chace Gun, but we fired too soon, for we lost Way and she gained. 1757 Phil. Trans. L. 34 The sea was rough, and the yacht had great way. 1764 J. Byron in Hawkesw. Voy. (1773) I. 23 On the 7th, I found myself much farther to the northward than I expected, and therefore supposed the ship's way had been influenced by a current. 1860 Hughes Tom Brown Oxf. xiii, Now mind, boys, don't quicken,..four short strokes to get way on her, and then steady. 1885 Law Rep. 10 P.D. 101 She ran into the Nio before her way could be stopped. 1889 Jerome Three Men in Boat ix, We can't steer, if you keep stopping. You must keep some way on the boat. 1899 F. T. Bullen Log of Sea-waif 27 By the time our way was exhausted, about ninety fathoms had been paid out on the first anchor.

transf. 1857 Dickens Dorrit i. xiii, A..short dark man came into the room with so much way upon him, that he was within a foot of Clennam before he could stop. 1911 Times 22 Aug. 8/2 He shut off his engine and by so doing took the ‘way’ off the biplane. 1914 Contemp. Rev. Nov. 680 The train gathered way.

    j. Colloq. phr. on the (or one's) way out (or down): going down in status, position, estimation, or favour; similarly with in or up, expressing the opposite sense.

1937 Time 25 Jan. 12/3 Every time one of them has called on the President and emerged smiling, rumor has whispered throughout Washington that the other was ‘on his way out’. 1938 Sat. Rev. (U.S.) 17 Sept. 17/1 The thrill of being on the way up, of being prominent, being envied. 1938 H. L. Ickes Diary 5 Nov. (1955) II. 497 France is but little better than a third-rate power and is on the way down. 1955 A. L. Rowse Expansion Eliz. Eng. i. 27 The Scottish king could well afford to make the concession: she was on her way out, he was on his way in. 1960 Guardian 9 Dec. 8/5 Sunrise yellows and pinks are definitely on the way in. 1962 in R. Jarrell Sad Heart at Supermarket 92 Poetry is on the way out! 1975 D. Bagley Snow Tiger xx. 163 This is the last job I'll hold as chief engineer. If I lose it I'll be on the way down—I'll be assistant to some smart young guy who is on his way up. 1980 A. Scholefield Berlin Blind i. 5 Calland was a good-looking young man on the way up.

    8. a. Distance travelled or to be travelled along a particular route. Hence (with adjs. long, short, good, great, little), a distance between places or to a place; often as advb. accusative. Also with off. Cf. halfway.
    a little goes a long way and varr.: see go v. 43 c, little n. 4. † a mile of way: = ‘a mile away’ (obs. rare).

c 900 tr. Bæda's Hist. i. xxiii, Hiᵹ..sumne dæl ðæs weᵹes ᵹefaren hæfdon. c 1000 Ep. Alexandri in Cockayne Narratiunculæ (1861) 25 Ða ondswarodon hie mec & sæᵹdon {thbar} nære mara weᵹ þonne meahte on tyn daᵹum ᵹeferan. c 1400 Mandeville (Roxb.) viii. 32 It es a grete way betwene þam. 1535 Coverdale 1 Kings xix. 7 Stonde vp, and eate, for thou hast a greate waye to go. 1551 T. Wilson Logic ii. I vii b, It is no good argument, if I se a tree a good way from me, to say, it is a tree, therefore it is an Apple tree. 1585 T. Washington tr. Nicholay's Voy. iii. viii. 82 b, Trauailing both day and night..[they] do dispatch more way then the best horse..coulde doe. 1588 Shakes. L.L.L. iii. 57 The way is but short, away. 1590 Spenser F.Q. i. i. 28 Long way he traveiled before he heard of ought. 1632 Lithgow Trav. v. 176 There came a man, and two women swimming to vs, more then a mile of way. 1662 J. Davies tr. Olearius' Voy. Ambass. 36 The Sand-banks..reach out a good way into the Sea. 1667 Sprat Hist. R. Soc. 250 A Chariot-way-wiser, measuring exactly the length of the way of the Chariot or Coach to which it is apply'd. 1697 C'tess D'Aunoy's Trav. (1706) 44 They commit these Villanies hard by a Sanctuary, so have the less way to an Altar. 1711 Budgell Spect. No. 77 ¶1, I saw him squirr away his Watch a considerable way into the Thames. 1818 Scott Hrt. Midl. xxxvi, I must ask the favour of your company a little way. 1835 Dickens Sk. Boz, Pawnbroker's Shop, It is a low,..dusty shop, the door of which stands always doubtfully, a little way open. 1844 Brougham Alb. Lunel I. ii. 39 The Marchioness's walk seldom lasted less than an hour, so that she must have some way to go. 1856 F. O. Morris Brit. Birds V. 8 Ventriloquism..making the sound at one moment appear close to the listener, and the next a long way off. 1882 Besant All Sorts xxi, But the village of Davenant is not a great way off. 1898 F. Montgomery Tony 18 She stood a little way from the door.

fig. 1744 Harris Three Treat. i. (1765) 18 And now then, continued he, as we have gone thus far, and have settled between us what we believe Art to be; shall we go a little farther, or is your Patience at an end? Oh! no, replied I, not if any thing be left. We have walked so leisurely, that much remains of our Way.

    † b. For a mile way, a furlong way, meaning the time which it takes to go that distance, see mileway, furlong b. Obs.
    c. In advb. phrases used figuratively. (by) a long way: qualifying a comparative, = ‘far’ (better, etc.). at the least way(s: see leastways. † a great way: to a great extent. † a foul way out: miserably far from success. some way: for some distance (in time). to go a long or great way: (a) see go v. 43 c, d; (b) to be in agreement with someone. all the way: completely; cf. senses 8 e, f below.

1601 Shakes. All's Well i. i. 112, I loue him for his sake, And yet I..Thinke him a great way foole. 1601 ― Jul. C. ii. i. 107 Heere, as I point my Sword, the Sunne arises, Which is a great way growing on the South. 1601 ― Twel. N. ii. iii. 201 If I cannot recouer your Neece, I am a foule way out. 1699 Bentley Phal. 484 Why, forsooth, so much ado, why such a vast way about, to obtain a few Verses? 1850 Lady Lyttleton Let. 12 June (1912) 401, I cannot quite enter into his politics... But a very great way I go along with him. 1859 Darwin Let. Nov. (1887) II. vi. 224 Also from Quatrefages, who is inclined to go a long way with us. 1859 T. Hughes Tom Brown at Oxf. iv, in Macmillan's Mag. Dec. 102/1 He is more of a gentleman by a long way than most. 1874 Sweet in Trans. Philol. Soc. 1873–4, 516 The most characteristic features of Middle English, as, for instance, ii and uu, were preserved some way into the sixteenth century. 1890 W. E. Norris Misadventure xiv, Bligh, who was his junior by a long way. 1973 ‘N. Carter’ Spanish Connection x. 112 I'm saying I can't buy your story all the way, Corelli.

    d. all the way from―to―: (a) throughout the specified interval, at every point in it; (b) U.S., (estimated, etc.) at any amount between the specified quantities.

(a) 1791 R. Mylne 2nd Rep. Thames Navig. 10 There is the finest navigable Water, all the Way from Mr. Tovey's Meadows to Clieve Lock. 1966 Listener 5 May 643/2 The peak age [for crime] is during the last year at school... The rate is fairly high all the way from twelve to twenty.

(b) 1878 J. H. Beadle Western Wilds xxxi. 493 The value of the booty taken has been estimated all the way from $150,000 to $300,000. 1931 G. T. Clark Leland Stanford xi. 365 The amount said to have been wagered..has been variously stated all the way from $5,000 to $50,000.

    e. to go all the way, the whole way: (a) to continue a course of action to its conclusion; spec. (slang), to engage in sexual intercourse (with someone), as opposed just to fondling; (b) to agree completely with someone.

1915 J. C. Powys Visions & Revisions 12 If you lack the courage, or the variability, to go all the way with very different masters, and to let your constructive consistency take care of itself, you may become, perhaps, an admirable moralist; you will never by a clairvoyant critic. 1922 H. J. Laski in Holmes-Laski Lett. (1953) I. 412, I can't go all the way with it, for if it was as a business man that the tyrant found the path to power I should have thought there would have been mention of it in Aristotle. 1924 P. Marks Plastic Age xiv. 151 ‘Wonder if Janet would have gone the whole way,’ flitted across his mind. 1927 H. T. Lowe-Porter tr. Mann's Magic Mountain I. iii. 78 ‘Am I right?’ ‘You certainly are, I can go all the way with you there.’ 1961 L. P. Hartley Two for River 49 I'd sooner go the whole way with somebody than natter with them at a tea-table. 1970 W. J. Burley To kill Cat x. 186 The things we found in her room! I mean it was obvious she was going all the way and her not fifteen! 1975 Listener 30 Oct. 574/4, I am not sure that I go all the way with Mr Miller in some of his analysis. 1979 R. Jaffe Class Reunion (1980) i. i. 24 She would go to medical school... She didn't know if she would have the guts to go all the way: intern, resident, actually practice medicine. Ibid. vi. 86 They would do as much as they could without either removing the rest of her clothes or going all the way.

    f. to come or go a long way (with personal subj.: for impersonal subj. see go v. 43 c, d): to achieve much, to make much progress; to have a long way to go, etc., to be far short of some accomplishment; so a long way from, far short of, much inferior to.

1917 H. J. Laski in Holmes-Laski Lett. (1953) I. 121 Your bretheren [sic]..have still a long way to go before they understand the meaning of a certain dissent in Adair v. U.S. 1922 W. S. Maugham in Pearson's Mag. Oct. 320/2 He had come a long way since then. 1925 New Yorker 5 Sept. 11/3 Which is another way of saying that he will go a very long way. 1933 F. Baldwin Innocent Bystander viii. 150 Sherry had a long way to travel before she would be a Fontanne or a Cornell. 1935 H. L. Mencken Let. 4 Jan. (1961) 386 You must yet go a long way, of course, before you are eligible to it. 1940 Chatelaine July 37/2 Pat and Rosemary have come a long way; they started their careers with Fred Waring's Pennsylvanians and ended up stars in one of the largest motion picture studios in the world. 1957 Practical Wireless XXXIII. 684/2 The system is a very long way from Hi-Fi, but is sufficient for the transmission of speech. 1966 Seventeen July 140/3 Society seems to have come a long way since the days of the Puritans, and now we're up to topless bathing suits. 1977 P. Baelz Ethics & Belief vii. 79 Man has still a long way to go before he exercises his freedom responsibly and responsively.

    9. a. Direction of motion, relative position, or aspect. Chiefly in advb. phrases, as this way (= hitherwards), my way (= towards me, into my neighbourhood), that way, which way, all ways, etc.
    In early use way often followed a local name or a n. preceded by to with the force of the suffix -ward. In mod. colloquial and esp. rustic speech expressions like (down) Essex way (i.e. in Essex or its neighbourhood) are common.
    For the right way, the wrong way, in uses belonging to this sense, see those adjs.

a 1300 Cursor M. 22573 Þe fixses þat þar-in er stade,..Til erth wai [Gött. Till erdward] þan sal þai fle. 1573–80 Tusser Husb. (1878) 103 In Cambridge shire forward to Lincolne shire way, the champion maketh his fallow in May. 1591 Shakes. 1 Hen VI, iii. iii. 52 Oh turne thy edged Sword another way. 1605 ― Macb. iv. i. 45 By the pricking of my Thumbes, Something wicked this way comes. 1607 ― Cor. i. iii. 8 When youth with comelinesse pluck'd all gaze his way. 1632 Lithgow Trav. vi. 276 From whence we saw..to the Westward, in the way of Egypt, the Castle of..Elisha. a 1654 Selden Table-T. (Arb.) 67 As take a straw and throw it up into the Air, you shall see by that which way the Wind is. 1680 Moxon Mech. Exerc. xiv. 235 The Work must run always one way. 1697 Dryden æneis xi 1123 This way and that his winding Course he bends. 1744 M. Bishop Life 190 Our advantageous Ground was the Destruction of a great many Thousands of the French, for we had them all Ways, Front, and Rear, and Flank. 1800 Lathom Dash of Day i. iii, I seldom come your way now. 1821 Scott Kenilw. xxiii, Janet..ventured to ask her lady, which way she proposed to direct her flight. 1841 Thackeray Gt. Hoggarty Diam. ii, As it was a very fine night, [we] strolled out for a walk West End way. 1846 James Step-Mother xxxviii. II. 106 The instant he entered—though the servant said, ‘this way, sir,’ and walked on towards the opposite door—Mr. Morton's visitor stopped, bowed to the ladies, [etc.]. 1850 Newman Difficulties Anglicans i. ii. (1891) I. 55 Drive a stake into a river's bed, and you will at once ascertain which way it is running. 1853 Lytton My Novel vi. xix, The first time you come my way you shall have two glasses of brandy-and-water. 1873 Ruskin Fors Clav. xxxiii. 2 When last I was up Huntly Burn way, there was no burn there. 1878 E. J. Trelawny Rec. Shelley etc. I. 167 A vehement exclamation..from one of the trio of ladies, drew all eyes her way. 1891 ‘R. Boldrewood’ Sydneyside Sax. vi, At last I made out a whirlwind coming our way. 1896 G. Chanter Witch of Withyford xv. 185 Joan she married Farmer Blake as lives over Molton way. 1902 ‘Violet Jacob’ Sheep-Stealers viii, ‘Where are you going to now?’.. ‘Down Crishowell way’. 1904 P. Landon in Times 24 Sept. 8/2 We took care not to offend..by deviating from the orthodox left-to-right course... The ‘way of the wine’ is a custom which would need no explanation to a Buddhist. 1912 S. H. Warren in Jrnl. R. Anthrop. Inst. XLII. 115 The shaft-hole is bored through the thinnest way of the [stone] blade, so that the cutting-edge comes at right angles to the shaft.

    b. fig. in non-spatial applications. that way: in the direction indicated contextually; spec. (a) homosexual; (b) (const. about) in love or infatuated; also (in general sense) that way inclined, to get that way.
    In colloquial use sometimes in predicative phrases, as (a little) that way, approximating to that condition; (all, quite very much) the other way.

1598 Shakes. Merry W. iii. ii. 79 My consent goes not that way. 1603 [see inclined ppl. a. 3 a]. 1605 ― Lear iii. iv. 21 O that way madnesse lies, let me shun that. a 1647 Fletcher Lovers' Progr. i. i, You are Poetical. Mal. Something given that way. 1652 Howell Giraffi's Rev. Naples ii. 90 Three Brothers were detected to have a Design that way. 1707 Atterbury Vind. Doctr. Funeral Serm. Bennet 32 As to the words themselves, there is nothing in them that sounds that way. 1711 Addison Spect. No. 108 ¶7 Finding his Genius did not lie that Way. 1794 J. H. Moore Pract. Navig. (1828) 179 Suppose the sun's true azimuth S. 17° 45{p} E. and the magnetic azimuth S. 5° 48{p} W., required the variation, and which way? 1837 Dickens Pickw. li, ‘I'm afraid you're wet.’.. ‘Yes, I am a little that way.’ 1858 Trollope Three Clerks xxvi, You must not compare me with them,..They are patterns of excellence. I am all the other way. 1859 T. Hughes Tom Brown at Oxf. (1861) I. x. 163 Both ‘smalls’ and ‘greats’ are sufficiently distant to be altogether ignored, if we are that way inclined. 1882 J. H. Blunt Ref. Ch. Eng. II. 126 Foxe, whose evidence is often one way and his assertions the other. 1885 Law Times LXXIX. 161/2 The evidence on the point had in his view been all one way. 1916 A. Bennett These Twain xx. 518 ‘He simply hates doing a thing straight off.’ ‘Yes, he is rather that way inclined.’ 1922 C. Sandburg Slabs of Sunburnt West 6 How do you get that way? a 1960 E. M. Forster Maurice (1971) vii. 42 The Greeks, or most of them, were that way inclined, and to omit it is to omit the mainstay of Athenian society. Ibid. xii. 62 In his second year he met Risley, himself ‘that way’. 1960 Wentworth & Flexner Dict. Amer. Slang 540/2 That way, in love. Usu. in ‘They are that way about each other.’ c. 1940. 1961 V. Sackville-West No Signposts in Sea 82 If I were that way inclined, which I am not, I can imagine falling in love with him myself. 1965 J. P. Carstairs Concrete Kimono xxiii. 207 Sharon. Be reasonable. I thought you were ‘that way’ about Roderick. 1966 ‘J. Hackston’ Father clears Out 91 It got that way in the end that I used to look forward to seeing Nolan and his team come lumbering down from the north. a 1967 J. R. Ackerley My Father & Myself (1968) xvi. 185, I divined that he was homosexual, or as we put it, ‘one of us,’ ‘that way’, ‘so’, or ‘queer’.

    c. Prov. to look nine ways, to look two ways for Sunday: to squint excessively. to go, look nine ways (at once, at thrice): expressing the indecision produced by terror or eagerness.

1542 [see nine A. 3 b]. a 1617 Bayne On Ephes. (1643) 253 Some, if a thing come into the head, turne them forth⁓with to it, as busily as if they would goe nine waies at once. 1649 [see nine A 3 b]. 1869 A. Macdonald Love, Law & Theol. xxi. 451 He has..a bad squint, so that..he seemed to be looking two ways for Sunday.

    d. the other way about, round: conversely, vice versa; also the other way, the other way around.

1834 Edin. Rev. Oct. 83 The fault, in the present instance, is the other way. 1879 R. L. Stevenson in Cornh. Mag. Oct. 412 He [sc. Burns] was ‘constantly the victim of some fair enslaver’—at least, when it was not the other way about. 1894 ‘M. Rutherford’ Cath. Furze vi, She..never could recollect whether the verb was conjugated, and the noun declined, or whether it was the other way round, to use one of her favourite expressions. 1914 Q. Rev. Apr. 382 Whilst with Hegel the Logic is the a priori framework of the whole philosophy, with Eucken it is secondary, adjusting itself to the life-process and not the other way about. 1925 New Yorker 28 Mar. 25/2 It is just as good the other way around. 1963 Christian Century 9 Jan. 49/1 But the Augustinian, and biblical, position addresses man the other way around: Find God and you will find yourself.

    e. one way or (the) other, either way (advb. phr.): in one direction or the other; in the direction of excess or defect, of assent or denial, of confirmation or disproof, etc.

1560 B. Hampton in T. Wright Q. Eliz. (1838) I. 36 As sone as th'ende thereof, either one waye or other, shall be knowne, I will not fayle to move the Quene's Majestie that the same may be [etc.]. 1732 Berkeley Alciphr. vi. §5, I should..be glad to be convinced one way or other. 1860 Dickens Uncomm. Trav. vii, The housekeeper who saw it all..seemed to have no opinion about it, one way or other. a 1878 B. Taylor Germ. Lit. 105 There are but a few years' difference between them, either way. 1884 Law Times Rep. L. 29/2 The Summary Jurisdiction Act 1879 has no real bearing one way or the other on the question.

    f. to have it both ways and varr.: to have advantages from two opposed or contradictory standpoints; to make use of alternatives or contradictions as it suits one.

1914 G. B. Shaw Fanny's First Play ii. 191 Then I suppose what I did was not evil; or else I was set free for evil as well as good. As father says, you cant have anything both ways at once. 1926 F. M. Ford Man could stand Up i. ii. 33 An oafish thing to do! To take a school⁓girl..just past the age of consent, out all night in a dog⁓cart... You'd think any man who was a man would have avoided that! Most men knew enough to know that the Woman Pays.., the school-girl too! But they get it both ways. 1964 C. Hodder-Williams Main Experiment vii. 73 ‘It was only folklore.’.. ‘Yes, but you can't have it both ways. If it frightens you it must mean something.’ 1967 Listener 13 Apr. 489/2 So our dual terminology helps us to have it both ways.

    † 10. Naut. The run or rake of a ship. (Cf. rake n.⁴ 1, run n. 25 b.) Obs.

1627 Capt. J. Smith Sea Gram. ii. 10 The meane is the best if her after way be answerable. 1691 T. H[ale] Acc. New Invent. 122 The proportion between the way of the Ship cut off at its greatest transverse section, and the way of the same shaped from the same section forward in the usual manner.

    III. Course of life or action, means, manner.
    11. a. A path or course of life; the activities and fortunes of a person.
    The use is mainly of Heb. origin, and is extremely frequent in all English versions of the Bible.

c 897 ælfred Gregory's Past. C. xlii, 306 Hie etað ðone wæsðm hiera æᵹnes weᵹes [L. comedent fructus viæ suæ (Prov. i. 31)]. 971 Blickl. Hom. 21 Oþon leohte is fulfremednesse weᵹ þe we on feran sceolan, þæt is se rihta ᵹeleafa. c 1200 Ormin 18068 Forr all þe Laferrd Cristess lif & all hiss hallȝhe lare, & all hiss weȝȝe, & all hiss werrc, [etc.]. 1375 Cursor M. 8590 (Fairf.) Of mister was þer wimmen twyn atte led þaire life in way of syn [Cott. wit sike and sin; other texts in sake and sine (synne)]. 1382 Wyclif Prov. xxi. 2 Eche weie of a man riȝt to hym semeth. 1653 Hane Jrnl. (1906) 1 By the Lord's providence who disposeth of all the wayes and actions of man. 1667 Milton P.L. iv. 620 Man hath his daily work..Appointed, which declares his Dignitie, And the regard of Heav'n on all his waies; While other Animals unactive range And of thir doings God takes no account. 1709 Prior Henry & Emma 395 One Destiny our Life shall guide; Nor Wild, nor Deep our common Way divide. 1750 Gray Elegy 76 They kept the noiseless tenor of their way.

    b. pl. Habits of life, esp. with regard to moral conduct.

c 825 Vesp. Psalter xxxviii. (xxxix.) 1 Ic cweð ic haldu weᵹas mine ðet ic ne agylte in tungan minre. [Similarly in all later versions.] 1513 More Rich. III Wks. 39/1 So that euer at length euil driftes dreue to nought, & good plain wayes prosper. 1567 Gude & Godlie B. (S.T.S.) 95 Thow sall not follow wickit mennis wayis. 1599 Shakes. etc. Pass. Pilgr. 323 And to her will frame all thy waies. 1675 Owen Indwelling Sin xvii. (1732) 235 His Companions in Sin not finding him in his old Ways, begin to laugh at him. 1832 H. Martineau Manch. Strike i. 8 Those who knew his ways could easily guess at which of his haunts he might be expected when missing from home. 1852 Mrs. Stowe Uncle Tom's C. xxxvii, I wish, friend, thee would leave off cursing and swearing, and think upon thy ways. 1857 Hughes Tom Brown i. i, I shall here shut up for the present, and consider my ways. 1887 M. Creighton in Mrs. Creighton Life (1904) I. 375 Your letter will give me much food for meditation, and may in time lead to an amendment of my ways.

    c. the way or ways of God: the course of God's providence; very common in Bible use.

c 825 Vesp. Psalter xliv. 17 Rehtwis dryhten in allum weᵹum his. 1382 Wyclif Prov. viii. 22 The Lord weldide me [sc. Wisdom] in the begynnyng of his weies [so 1535 Coverdale; 1611 way]. 1667 Milton P.L. viii. 413 To attaine The highth and depth of thy Eternal wayes All human thoughts come short, supream of things. 1738 C'tess of Hertford Corr. (1805) I. 28 It tells us..that a day will come when the ways of Providence will be cleared up.

    d. A prescribed course of life or conduct; the law or commandments (of God); also in pl.

a 1000 Andreas 170 Leode [he] lærde on lifes weᵹ. a 1300 Cursor M. 6858, I..sal hald yow lel mi hight, To-quils yee folu mi wais right. 1382 Wyclif Job xxi. 14 The which seiden to God, Go awei fro vs; the kunnyng of thi weies we wiln not. 1786 S. Told Acc. Life 166, I walked closely in the ways of God. 1879 R. K. Douglas Confucianism iii. 72 The Sage..maintains a perfect uprightness and pursues the heavenly way without the slightest deflection.

    e. the Way: in the Acts of the Apostles, a name for the Christian religion (ἡ ὁδός, Vulg. via).
    In Acts ix. 2, xix. 9, 23, xxiv. 14, 22, the Greek has ‘the way’; the only English translation that has the literal rendering in all the passages is the Revised Version of 1881 (‘the Way’, with capital). In ix. 2 Wyclif, following an error in some MSS. of the Vulgate, has ‘this life’; later versions down to 1611 have ‘this way’. In xix. 9 and 23 Wyclif, after some MSS. of the Vulgate, has ‘the way of the Lord’ (so, in verse 9, Tindale 1526 and Geneva 1557); later versions of verse 23 down to 1611 ‘that way’. In xxiv. 14 Wyclif has ‘the sect’ (after Vulg. sectam), Tindale and Geneva ‘that way’, Cranmer and 1611 ‘the way’. In xxiv. 22 Wyclif has ‘the way’, Geneva ‘this sect’, and other versions down to 1611 ‘that way’. In Acts xxii. 4 the Greek has ‘this way’, which all the English translators render literally.
    12. a. A course of action. Often with the phraseology of sense 4, as to go the right way, wrong, nearest way.

a 1300 Cursor M. 29222 For-þi to weind þe seker wai I rede we be in penance ai. 1390 Gower Conf. I. 2, I wolde go the middel weie And wryte a bok betwen the tweie, Somwhat of lust, somewhat of lore. c 1500 H. Medwall Nature (Brandl) i. 342 Yf thou se hym not take hys owne way, Call me cut, when thou metest me a nother day. 1526 Pilgr. Perf. (W. de W. 1531) 9 In this we may knowe, what waye to take, & what waye to leue. c 1530 Ld. Berners Arth. Lyt. Brit. 352, I thinke this is a better waye than all to fyght at ones. 1539 in W. A. J. Archbold Somerset Relig. Houses (1892) 75 Albeyt we have vsed as many wayes with her as our poore wittes cowde atteyne, yet in the ende we cowde not..bring her to any conformytie. 1560 J. Daus tr. Sleidane's Comm. 216 Theyr Archebysshop Herman hathe gon a new waye to worke [L. iniisse novam rationem]. a 1586 Sidney Arcadia ii. xxii. §8 (1912) 293 He durst not take open way against them: and as harde it was to take a secrete. 1610 Shakes. Temp. ii. ii. 39 My best way is to creepe vnder his Gaberdine. 1616 T. Draxe Bibl. Scholast. 2 He goeth the wrong way to worke, or to the wood. 1656 Cowley Davideis i. Note 37 There is so much to be said of this subject, that the best way is to say nothing of it. 1693 Locke Educ. §39 The sooner this Way is begun with Children, the easier it will be for them, and their Governors too. 1748 Smollett Rod. Rand. lxii, He told me that I went the wrong way to work.

    † b. (One's) best or most advisable course. Obs.

1590 Shakes. Com. Err. iv. iii. 93 My way is now to hie home to his house, And tell his wife, that [etc.]. 1594 ― Rich. III, i. i. 78, I thinke it is our way, If we will keepe in fauour with the King, To be her men, and weare her Liuery. 1603 ― Meas. for M. v. 280, I will goe darkely to worke with her. That's the way: for women are light at midnight. 1604 ― Oth. ii. iii. 393 And bring him iumpe, when he may Cassio finde Soliciting his wife: I that's the way.

    c. to have (get, etc.) one's (own) way: to be allowed to follow or to enforce on others the course of action on which one is resolved; hence to love, be fond of one's own way. Cf. 14 i.

1593 Shakes. 3 Hen. VI, iii. ii. 139 Like one that..chides the Sea, that sunders him from thence, Saying hee 'le lade it dry, to haue his way. 1611 B. Jonson Catitine iv. iii, Had I had my way, He' had mew'd in flames, at home, not i' the Senate. 1622 Bacon Hen. VII 238 Hee was of an High Mind, and loued his owne Will, and his owne Way. 1748 Richardson Clarissa (1768) I. 147 Obstinate, perverse, undutiful Clarissa!..then take your own way, and go up! 1849 Macaulay Hist. Eng. viii. II. 298 Every child knew that his majesty loved to have his own way and could not bear to be thwarted. 1859 Tennyson Marr. Geraint 466, I myself sometimes despise myself; For I have let men be, and have their way. 1859 ― Grandmother xviii, Kind, like a man, was he; like a man, too, would have his way. 1866 Mrs. Whitney Leslie Goldthwaite xi, I'll..thank you unutterably, if you'll only let me have my way in this. It will do me so much good, mamma! 1873 Mrs. Oliphant Innocent III. 310 You are..silly, pig-headed, unreasonable, and more fond of your own way than of anything else in the world. 1885 Manch. Exam. 8 June 4/7 If they do not get their own way they will resign. 1893 Law Times XCIV. 559/1 If I had had my way, I would have fought every one of these actions.

    (b) spec. in phr. to have one's way, to have sexual intercourse with (used chiefly of a man).

1915 Conrad Victory iv. xii. 399 If I had taken you by the throat this morning and had my way with you, I should never have known what you are. 1939 Ottawa Jrnl. 23 Aug. 15/2 He might destroy Phil..to have his way with Joan. 1961 W. Brown Bedeviled 113 Although she struggled, she was no match for him and he had ‘had his way with her’. 1980 E. Jong Fanny iii. xiii. 440 Thus could Anne Bonny defend herself when she did not fancy a Man, but when she fancied one, she also had her Way with him.

    † d. take better way with you: take a more reasonable course. Obs.

a 1553 Udall Royster D. iv. iii. (Arb.) 65 Let me now treate peace, For bloudshed will there be in case this strife increace. Ah good dame Custance, take better way with you.

    13. a. A course of action, a device, expedient method, or means, by which some end may be attained or some danger escaped. Const. to with inf. or n., of with gerund.
    Proverb, where there's a will there's a way.

c 1175 Lamb. Hom. 49 Þet we maȝen mid ure muðe bringen us ut of þisse putte..and þet þurh þreo herde weies þe þus beoð ihaten: Cordis contritione, Oris confessione, Operis satisfactione. c 1400 26 Pol. Poems iv. 36 By al way make hym þi frende. c 1400 Pety Job 382 ibid. 133, I may nat from thy respeccioun By no way, lorde, hyde now me. c 1470 Stonor Papers (Camden) I. 109 As for the nexte corte they hathe founde a wey þat ther schull no thyng be do, yn so myche as ye be absent. a 1548 Hall Chron., Hen. VII, 50 For after yt tyme there were an hundred wayes practised and invented how at one time or another, to deliver or convey them out of pryson. 1550 Crowley Last Trumpet 699 Why should not I..Haue benefices two or thre? Sens thou hast taught me the wei how I may kepe them and blamelesse be. 1606 Shakes. Ant. & Cl. i. iii. 10 Thou teachest like a foole: the way to lose him. 1624 Donne Devot. x. (ed. 2) 217 Those are the greatest mischiefes, which are least discerned; the most insensible in their waies come to be the most sensible in their ends. a 1633 G. Herbert Outlandish Prov. (1640) 730 To him that will, waies are not wanting. 1668 R. Steele Husbandm. Calling v. (1672) 96 The way to have full barns, is to have free hands. 1685 F. Cheneau (title) French Grammar enriched with a compendious and short way to learn the French tongue in a very short time..; and a very rare way to find out all the articles, nouns, pronouns [etc.]. 1720 De Foe Capt. Singleton ii. (1840) 25 They took ways..to satisfy us. 1753 Richardson Grandison I. ii. 5 And tho' he finds a way, by his sister..to let Miss Byron know his passion. 1844 Brougham Alb. Lunel xvi. II. 176 Against England he is implacable and the only way to ruffle his temper is to praise her. 1849 Macaulay Hist. Eng. x. II. 554 He now saw that there was only one way of averting general confusion. 1882 Besant All Sorts xxi, ‘Is there no way,’ she asked, ‘in which he can earn money?’ 1892 Speaker 3 Sept. 292/2 Mr. Huxley..can see but one way of arriving at truth; which he calls experience. 1918 Cornhill Mag. June 634 Radicals who preached Colonial Self-government as the way and the only way to Imperial Unity.

    b. Coupled with the synonymous mean n.: see ways and means. Also † mean way (see mean a.² 4), † way moyen (see moyen a.). Also † ways and grounds.

c 1400 Rom. Rose 4844 Wher they ne may Finde non other mene wey [Fr. ou nus ne set le moien querre]. 1430–1 Rolls of Parlt. IV. 375/2 Upon grete subtilite.., and colored menes and weyes. 1440 in Wars Eng. in France (Rolls) II. 444 For elles youre partie adverse and the saide duc might not godely have founden the moyens and the weyes to have communed to geder to conclude thaire confedracy. 1455 Rolls of Parlt. V. 287/2 So the weyes and groundes may be founde and hadde for paiement. 1470 Stonor Papers (Camden) I. 115 Our Traitours..which daily labour þe weyes moyens at þeir power of our final destruccion. 1560 J. Daus tr. Sleidane's Comm. 82 This is the onely meane and waye, that is euermore certayne and sure. 1561 T. Hoby tr. Castiglione's Courtyer ii. (1577) N 1 b, Ech honest louer..vseth so manye meanes and wayes to please the woman whome hee loueth.

    † c. to have the way(s: to know how to do something. Obs.

1542 Udall Erasm. Apoph. 163 O the right philosophicall herte of this prince, who had the waye, euen of his enemies, also to take vtilitee and profite. Ibid. 200 Oh what an horse these folkes dooe marre, while through defaulte of skylle..thei haue not the wayes to handle hym [L. dum illo per imperitiam..uti nesciunt].

    d. way out of: a means of escape from (a difficulty). Cf. sense 4.

1875 Jowett Plato (ed. 2) V. 430 Let us..ask ourselves..whether we have discovered a way out of the difficulty.

    14. a. Manner in which something is done or takes place; method of performing an action or operation.

c 725 Corpus Gloss. (Hessels) Q 74 Quocumque modo, ᵹehwelci weᵹa. c 1350 Will. Palerne 5526 He wold haue do beter, ȝif is witte in eny weiȝes wold him haue serued. 1450–1530 Myrr. Our Ladye i. v. 17 Lyghtnynge hys soule..with the spiritual vnderstondyng of hys wordes & that in tow wayes. 1563 T. Gale Antidot. Pref. 2 The methode and way of composition of suche medicines. 1577 B. Googe Heresbach's Husb. ii. 72 But are there more wayes then one of plantyng and setting? 1603 Shakes. Meas. for M. iii. ii. 112 They say this Angelo was not made by Man and Woman, after this downe⁓right way of Creation. 1617 Moryson Itin. i. 67 After dinner we rode in like way two miles, to the City Lowen. 1638 Junius Paint. Ancients 227 As for the things an Artificer shall judge to be worth his pains, he shall not onely invent them after the best way, but also after the easiest way. 1651 Baxter Inf. Bapt. 23 There is more ways of teaching then by preaching in a Pulpit. 1669 Sturmy Mariner's Mag. iv. xvii. 202 A perfect Method and Way of keeping Account. 1687 A. Lovell tr. Thevenot's Trav. i. 34, I have said enough of the Turks way of Eating, Drinking and Sleeping. 1711 Addison Spect. No. 124 ¶4, I may pronounce their Characters from their Way of Writing. 1743 Bulkeley & Cummins Voy. S. Seas 66 We have found out a new way of managing the Haugh. 1747 H. Glasse Cookery i. 4 There are several Ways of making Sauce for a Pig. 1798 S. Lee Canterb. T., Yng. Lady's T. II. 341 She exacted, in consideration of this concession, that he should allow her to do it in her own way. 1827 Faraday Chem. Manip. xxiii. (1842) 586 In many other situations a bad conductor is of service in a similar way. 1860 Geo. Eliot Mill on Fl. II. iii. vii. 107 I'm not a-defending him, in no way, for being so hot about th' erigation. 1878 Hardy Ret. Native ii. ii. (1890) 113 Yet why, aunt, does everybody keep on making me think that I do, by the way they behave towards me? 1895 Law Times XCIX. 546/1 Any practical suggestions pointing out in what way assistance may be rendered to students generally. 1897 J. W. Clark Barnwell Introd. 9 A few words on the way in which I was led to undertake the work. 1952 M. R. Rinehart Pool (1953) xx. 170 It's no way to talk about a sister, but I've had about all I can take.

    † b. Literary style or method. Obs.

1632 J. Hayward tr. Biondi's Eromena To Rdr. A iv, The Authours peculiar way of imbellishing it..gained so much on the Italian humour, as it induced divers of that Nobility to procure him to second it..with another Tome. a 1639 Wotton Surv. Educ. Reliq. (1651) 334 And this is enough for the disclosing of a good Capacity in the popular way; which I have followed, because the Subject is generall. 1671 Dryden Even. Love Pref. a 1 b, I admire and applaud him where I ought: those who do more, do but value themselves in their admiration of him: and, by telling you they extoll Ben. Johnson's way, would insinuate to you that they can practice it. 1691 Wood Ath. Oxon. II. 641 Five Sermons in five several stiles or waies of preaching. The first in Bishop Andrews way... The second in B. Halls way.

    c. In Chem. and Assaying. the humid way, moist way, or wet way, the dry way (= F. voie humide, voie sèche), processes distinguished by the presence or absence of liquid.

1796 [see dry a. 11 e]. 1800 tr. Lagrange's Chem. I. 398, I am not yet able to give an account..of the results of this analysis by the wet way. 1838 [see humid a. c]. 1839 [see moist a. 5].

    d. Adverbial phrases without prep. See also anyway, someway.
    Now somewhat rare, the form with in being commonly preferred. For no way see noway adv.

a 1300 Cursor M. 12623 Leue sun,..þi fader and i has mani wais Soght þe abute this thre dais. c 1380 Wyclif Sel. Wks. III. 348 Freris..spuylen þe puple many weies by ipocrisie and oþer leesingis. 1526 Tindale Heb. i. 1 God in tyme past diversly and many wayes [Gr. πολυτρόπως] spake vnto the fathers by prophetes. 1553 T. Wilson Rhet. iii. 90 b, When by deuersity of inuention, a sentence is manye wayes spoken. 1560 J. Daus tr. Sleidane's Comm. 286 He declareth..how many wayes they have rebelled [L. quam multis modis rebellarint ostendit]. 1589 Hakluyt Voy. Ep. Ded. ¶5 It hath passed..the censure of the learned phisitian M. Doctor Iames, a man many wayes very notably qualified. 1599 Shakes. Much Ado ii. i. 198 What fashion will you weare the Garland off?.. You must weare it one way, for the Prince hath got your Hero. c 1600 ― Sonn. xvi. 1 But wherefore do not you a mightier waie Make warre vppon this bloudie tirant time? 1612 Peacham Gentl. Exerc. iii. 167 The Lion..is borne these waies, Rampant, Passant, Saliant, Seisant or couchant. 1651 Hobbes Leviath. ii. xxxi. 187 God declareth his Lawes three wayes. 1653 Walton Angler x. 187 Some say, they [sc. eels] breed..out of the putrifaction of the earth, and divers other waies. 1659 Nicholas Papers (Camden) IV. 122 There Fleetewood, Desborow, with the greatest officers seeke God for councell and act theire owne way. 1682 Dryden Mac Flecknoe 208 There thou maist..torture one poor word Ten thousand ways. 1695 W. J. tr. Bossu's Treat. Epick Poem ii. vii. 72 An Action may be entire and compleat two ways. 1780 Johnson Let. to Mrs. Thrale 4 July, I..hope she will not be too rigorous with the young ones, but allow them to be happy their own way.

    e. Coupled with manner. Also in advb. phrases, all manner of ways, any manner of way († ways). Now rare.

1430 Reg. Mag. Sig. Scot. 38/2 The fermys and the frottis in the menc tyme tane in the principale some of na maner of waye to be contyt. ? 1474 Stonor Papers (Camden) I. 141 The grace of Jhesu, hom I mekely beseche..to preserve your fadyrhod yn alle maner of weyys. 1508 Reg. Privy Seal Scot. I. 253/1 Alienatioun thairof in heretage, lyferent, or lang takis forthir than thre ȝeris, onymaner of way. 1533 Gau Richt Vay (S.T.S.) 26 Ane man ma trow ii maner of wais of god. 1654 D. Osborne Lett. (1888) 225 My Lady Ruthin..has put a tune to them that I may hear them all manner of ways. 1705 in W. S. Perry Hist. Coll. Amer. Col. Ch. I. 162 Signed; but without the Privity..of Gov{supr} Nicholson or his being any manner of ways connected in it. 1718 in Nairne Peerage Evid. (1874) 33 In such way and manner as to his Majesty should seem meet. 1720 A. Petrie Rules Good Deportm. (1877) 20 It is rude in Company to break Wind any Manner of Way, tho amongst Inferiors. 1815 Scott Guy M. xii, O ay, sir, there's nae doubt o' that, though there are mony idle clashes about the way and manner.

    f. in his (her, its, their) way: appended to expressions of praise, with the implication that the praise given is to be understood in a limited sense appropriate to the object. in a way (colloq. in a sort of way): appended to a statement to intimate that it might be taken to imply more than it is meant to do.

1711 Steele Spect. No. 43 ¶3 We are all Grave, Serious, Designing Men, in our Way. 1742 Richardson Pamela III. 255 You are two beloved Creatures: Both excellent in your way. 1749 in 10th Rep. Hist. MSS. Comm. App. i. 303, I have received from Cairo the Egyptian figures one of which in their way I do not think bad. 1829 Scott Rob Roy Introd. 1st half, All whom I have conversed with, and I have in my youth seen some who knew Rob Roy personally, gave him the character of a benevolent and humane man ‘in his way.’ 1835 Dickens Sk. Boz, Parl. Sk., Jane is as great a character as Nicholas, in her way. 1855 Prescott Philip II, i. viii. (1857) 149 The letter of plenipotentiaries..is a model in its way. 1865 Mrs. Whitney Gayworthys xxix, Of all the looks I ever see in a human face, his was the grievedest then..; and yet, in a kind of way, it was the grandest. 1878 Browning Poets Croisic xlviii, Latin verses, lovely in their way. 1885 ‘Mrs. Alexander’ Valerie's Fate iii, He is handsome in a way—not elegant and soigné like Captain Grey, but there is something about him [etc.]. 1905 R. Bagot Passport iii. 16 Its apartments, though stately in their way, were neither historic nor [etc.].

    g. way of thinking: now usually, a set of opinions or principles characteristic of a party or sect. In earlier use with other senses, e.g. a purpose or intention, a (high or low) level of moral principle.

1709 Steele Tatler No. 66 ¶1 Lysander, who is something particular in his Way of Thinking and Speaking, told us, a Man could not be Eloquent without Action. 1737 Gentl. Mag. VII. 81 The Thing..was, at the best, but a very mean Action, and argued a low Way of Thinking. 1744 M. Bishop Life 3, I hope he will turn your Heart from this Way of thinking [sc. wanting to go to sea]. 1841 Helps Ess., Transaction of Business (1842) 93 It is often worth while to bestow much pains in gaining over foolish people to your way of thinking. 1891 Kipling Light That Failed xi, More than you will be of that way of thinking, young woman.

    h. way of living or life: habits (of an individual or a community) with regard to food, habitation, intercourse, etc. Now also in weakened use: a principle or activity that governs all one's actions; a dominating interest or occupation.

1605 Shakes. Macbeth v. iii. 24 My way of life Is falne into the Seare, the yellow Leafe. 1681 Rycaut tr. Gracian's Critick To Rdr. A 8 b, Their Customs and way of living are different to other Nations of Europe. 1729 T. Innes Crit. Ess. (1879) 238 The same author..tells us that in his time the Britains were, as to their manners and way of living, partly like to the inhabitants of the Gauls. 1741 C'tess Pomfret in C'tess Hartford's Corr. (1805) III. 369, I have got into as regular a way of life here as I could be in at my own house. 1774 Goldsm. Nat. Hist. VIII. 184 If we examine their way of living, we shall find these insects chiefly subsisting upon others, much less than themselves. 1777 Sir W. Jones Ess. i. 180 Since their way of life gives them leisure to pursue those arts. 1898 M. Pemberton Phantom Army i. vi, That the hour would come when he must lay down the sword..and turn with shame from the old way of life. 1917 H. J. Laski in Holmes-Laski Lett. (1953) I. 104 Education is a way of life and not the collection of information. 1938 Amer. Jrnl. Sociol. XLIV. 1 (heading) Urbanism as a way of life. 1957 Times Lit. Suppl. 1 Nov. 650/5 Democracy has not yet been accepted as a way of life in Germany. 1970 Daily Tel. 4 Sept. 5/2 The investigation..is expected to ask searching questions into the safety of supertankers, which have now become a ‘way of life’. 1974 Times 8 Mar. 23/5 (heading) Hong-kong... Where a quick profit is a way of life. 1981 Q. Crisp How to become a Virgin 188 Giving talks to American universities could easily be converted into a way of life.

    i. to have everything one's own way, to have it all one's own way: to have one's wishes carried out; to meet with no resistance or opposition. Cf. 12 c.

1709 Steele Tatler No. 66 ¶2 Therefore he would have it his Way, and our Friend is to drink till he is carbuncled and Tun-bellied. 1744 M. Bishop Life 107 Never deny him any Thing, for he loves to have every Thing his own Way. 1847 Helps Friends in C. i. viii. 154 That easiness of mind, which is easy because it is tolerant, because it does not look to have everything its own way. 1853 Lytton My Novel iv. vii, That literature admits no controversialists, and the writer has it all his own way. 1858 Sears Athan. xvi. 133 What sort of a world would you make for yourself, if you could have everything your own way?

    j. In various phrases. † there is no way but one: death (or ruin) is certain. no two ways about it or that (? orig. U.S. colloq.): there can be no doubt of the fact. it is always the way with (him): (he) always acts so. by (or with) his way of it (Sc.): according to his account of it. there is no way (with dependent clause) (colloq.): there is no possibility that; cf. noway adv.

1570 ? Tarlton in Old Ballads (Percy Soc. 1840) 82 No horse nor man could passe Of busines small or post, For issue none there was, No way but to be lost. 1586 Marlowe 1st Pt. Tamburl. v. ii. 1982 The Souldan and the Arabian king together Martch on vs with such eager violence, As if there were no way but one with vs. 1599 Shakes. Hen. V, ii. iii. 16 After I saw him fumble with the Sheets..[etc.], I knew there was but one way. 1678 Dryden All for Love Pref. b 4, For if he heard the malicious Trumpetter proclaiming his name before his betters, he knew there was but one way with him. 1796–7 Jane Austen Pride & Prej. xliii, ‘And this is always the way with him,’ she added. ‘Whatever can give his sister any pleasure, is sure to be done in a moment.’ 1818 Fearon Sk. America 320 (Thornton s.v. No) You and I have got to dovetail, and no two ways about it. 1834 J. Hall Kentucky I. 145 ‘This has been a powerful hot day.’.. ‘No two ways about that,’ said the hunter. 1842 Dickens Amer. Notes vi, Well, they're [i.e. the cells are] pretty nigh full, and that's a fact, and no two ways about it. 1852 H. Rogers Ecl. Faith (1853) 221 It is too much the way with you objectors to say [etc.]. 1867 Mrs. Oliphant Madonna Mary I. viii. 119 But then that is often the way with those well-off people. 1889 Stevenson Master of Ballantrae ii, Onyway he was a great hand by his way of it, and he up and rebuked the Master for some of his on-goings. 1975 New Yorker 1 Dec. 55/2 There is no way a losing candidate can pick himself up and pretend nothing has happened to him. 1977 Daily Tel. 10 Oct. 12/8 We are operating an emergency service and there is no way we would strike and let the old folk down. 1978 S. Brill Teamsters x. 380 There was no way he would support the President's reelection. 1978 G. A. Sheehan Running & Being xiii. 188 He had recognized the bald head and there was no way I was going to beat him.

    k. in this way: in colloquial lang. sometimes used vaguely for ‘thus’ or ‘so’, when not the manner of an action but the action itself is in question.

1837 Dickens Pickw. xxviii, I can't let you cut an old friend in this way.

    l. (in) one way or (or and) another: by any of various methods, for any of various reasons, in any of various respects. Cf. sense 9 e.

1861 T. Hughes Tom Brown at Oxf. I. iii. 40 Being a good whist and billiard player, and not a bad jockey, he managed in one way or another to make his young friends pay well for the honour of his acquaintance. 1923 R. Macaulay Told by Idiot i. v. 23 One way and another, what with papa's friends and mamma's and the children's, a good deal of life flowed into the..house. 1955 L. P. Hartley Perfect Woman viii. 79 What, after all, had he to tell Alec that mattered so much, one way or another? 1965 M. Allingham Mind Readers xix. 211 We're in for a very busy time, my lad, one way and another. 1973 Listener 15 Nov. 661/3, I was quite well educated, one way and another. 1979 A. Price Tomorrow's Ghost xii. 216 Captain Fitzgibbon wouldn't come back from that last Ulster tour, one way or another.

    m. way of looking at it or things: the (personal) perspective from which one views a situation or event, esp. as regards attitudes brought to it or implications seen in it; a point of view.

[1845: see look v. 3 a. 1861 T. Hughes Tom Brown at Oxf. III. v. 95 Mary's habits, and thoughts, and ways of looking at and judging of people and things, were much changed.] 1881 H. James Portr. Lady I. xvii. 218, I can't make out that what he tells me about the royal family is much to their credit; but he says that's only my peculiar way of looking at it. 1893 ‘L. Carroll’ Sylvie & Bruno Concluded ii. 27 It's a new way of looking at it—to me..but it seems a true way, also. 1905 E. G. White Ministry of Healing 483 We differ so widely in disposition, habits, education, that our ways of looking at things vary. 1911 D. H. Lawrence White Peacock ii. i. 202 It's one way of looking at things. 1963 D. Lessing Man & Two Women 141, I mean to say, you've got to take the rough with the smooth, and there's no other way of looking at it.

    n. the way: so that, with the result that. Ir.

1899 Somerville & ‘Ross’ Some Experiences Irish R.M. v. 118 A couple o' dhraws o' th' ash plant across the butt o' the tail, the way I wouldn't blind her. 1912 J. Stephens Crock of Gold xiv. 225 Be sure and hold him tight..the way we can have a good look at him. 1924 R. Macaulay Orphan Island i. 16 We must see about fermenting some of this fruit-juice, the way we'll get something fit to drink.

    o. it's this way: a colloq. formula introducing an oral explanation.

1905 ‘O. Henry’ Strictly Business (1910) But it's this way: Suppose you're a Fifth Avenue millionaire, soaring high. 1938 T. Caldwell Dynasty of Death (1939) i. 385 Well, it's this way, Paul: you see, a number of us must stay at home to make the guns..for our soldiers to use. 1961 East Anglian Mag. July 505 ‘It's this way,’ he expounded to his cronies in the know. 1970 [see lose v.1 9 b].

    15. In advb. phrases like (in) all ways, (in) any way, (in) one way, (in) more ways than one, etc., the sense of ‘manner’ (see 14) passes into that of: An aspect, feature, or respect; a point or particular of comparison.

1598 Shakes. Merry W. i. iv. 15 His worst fault is that he is giuen to prayer; hee is something peeuish that way. a 1600 Hooker Wks. (1836) III. 796 That justice exacteth punishment for offending, even after their offences be forgiven them, there is, as it seemeth, proof sufficient more ways than one. a 1626 Bacon New Atl. (1900) 38/13 Also we make them differ in Colour, Shape, Activity, many wayes. 1630 B. Jonson New Inn iv. iii, The office of a man Thats truly valiant, is considerable Three ways: the first in respect of matter..; in respect of forme..; And in the end [etc.]. 1816 Edin. Rev. Dec. 464 The foreign Commissioners had not yet reached St Helena, whose presence in the island may justly have alarmed Sir Hudson, in more ways than one, for the safety of his prisoner. 1885 ‘Mrs. Alexander’ Valerie's Fate v, May you find a companion better in all ways than I could have been! 1893 Le Gallienne Retrosp. Rev. (1896) II. 21 A teetotaler, however admirable in other ways, is not the fit person to edit Burns. 1895 Hardy Jude v. viii. 398 Her loss was a loss to me in more ways than one! 1952 M. R. Rinehart Swimming Pool xiv. 129 It's a dead end, in more ways than one.

    16. a. A condition regarded as hopeful or the contrary. Chiefly with qualifying adj.: in a good way, bad way, forward (etc.) way. † to stand in good way: to be likely to prosper. † to be in way with: to be in treaty with (a person) for something. † to put (a business) in a way: to put in train. (to put) in the (or a, that) way: (to make) pregnant; cf. in the family way s.v. family 10 b.
    Also to be in a fair way (to do something): see fair a. 14.

1467 Paston Lett. Suppl. 113 Wer by, I undy[r]stand,..all thyng standyth in good way. 1480 Cely Papers (Camden) 49, I am in whay w{supt} Iyshbryght van whennysbarge for an ij of yowr sarplers. I hope I shall go thorow w{supt} hym. c 1500 in Joseph Arimath. (E.E.T.S.) 32 He..set his realme & his housholde in good waye..& toke his Iourney. 1624 in Eng. Hist. Rev. (1913) Jan. 129 When he hath put the business in a way, then he [the Secretary] is to go back and take his own place. 1648 Gage West Ind. 210, I am in a good way for salvation. 1691 T. H[ale] Acc. New Invent. p. xviii, Timber sufficient for the use of the Navy Royal had now been in a forward way to its sufficient growth. 1698 J. Collier Immor. Stage 211 When ever you see a thorough Libertine, you may almost swear he is in a rising way, and that the Poet intends to make him a great Man. 1726 G. Shelvocke Voy. round World 347 People in such a forlorn way are apt to form innumerable apprehensions. 1742 Richardson Pamela III. 228 [She] told me..that the Way I was in [sc. ‘in the family way’], made her love me better and better. Ibid. 354 So having congratulated their hopeful Way, and wished them to take care of themselves [etc.]. 1809 Windham Let. 23 July in Sp. (1812) I. 109 But one of the poor men who were hurt at the fire is dead, and another of them is, I fear, in a bad way. 1817 Jane Austen Let. 23 Mar. (1952) 488 M{supr}{sups} Clement too is in that way again. I am quite tired of so many Children. 1828 Carr Craven Gloss. s.v., ‘To be in a hinging way,’ neither well nor ill. 1831 Mrs. Arbuthnot Let. 18 Feb. in C. Arbuthnot Corr. (1941) 140 Young Ly. C. is not in a way; the old housekeeper wrote to her something about it, & she wrote back word, ‘God's will be done.’ 1838 Dickens Nich. Nick. xxiii, There was Mrs. Lenville, in a very limp bonnet and veil, decidedly in that way in which she would wish to be if she truly loved Mr. Lenville. 1867 Queen Victoria Let. 25 Oct. in R. Fulford Your Dear Letter (1971) 155 Dearest child, why did you not tell me, your own mother, when you first began being in that way? 1871 Smiles Charac. i. 26 The nation that has no higher god than pleasure, or even dollars or calico, must needs be in a poor way. 1960 Pick of Today's Short Stories XI. 215 They'd both eloped... ‘I'll bet he put her in the way’. 1980 J. Rose Elizabeth Fry iii. 44 She suspected herself of being pregnant, ‘in the way’ as she called it.

    b. to be in a way (with or without specifying adj.): to be in a state of mental distress or anxiety. dial. Cf. state n. 2 c.

1855 Mag, for Young XIV. 131 She keeps on crying out for her mamma..and she is in such a way as I never saw. 1869 A. Macdonald Love, Law & Theol. xvi. 313 But they say she's in a dreedfu' wey..She's never yet heerd frae her man [etc.]. Ibid. xviii. 354 She'll gae clean distrackit—a hear she's in a sair wey aboot it. 1873 Spilling M. Miggs 81 (E.D.D.) Well, there, I was in a way. 1883 F. M. Peard Contrad. xxvi, Mother's in a fine way. 1896 G. Chanter Witch of Withyford iv. 45, I suppose her was in a proper way about it and fell to crying.

    17. Kind, sort, description. Now only in certain phrases. in the way of: of the nature of, belonging to the class of, ‘in the shape of’. Also, with similar sense, and more frequently, in the ― way, where way is qualified by an attributive n. or an adj. So occas. in this way = ‘of this kind’.

1647 Clarendon Hist. Reb. iii. §140 He averred that ‘in that way of bill [sc. a bill of attainder] private satisfaction to each man's conscience was sufficient, although no evidence had been given in at all’. 1736 Butler Anal. Introd., Wks. 1874 I. 4 Though so little in this way has been attempted by those who have treated of our intellectual powers. 1757 Foote Author i. Wks. 1799 I. 134 You have nothing in the compiling or index way, that you wou'd intrust to the care of another? Ibid. 136 In the year forty-five, when I was in the treasonable way. 1770 Langhorne Plutarch's Lives, Philopœmen ¶4 From a child he was fond of everything in the military way. 1791 Smeaton Edystone L. §94, I could have every thing here, that I could desire in the freestone way. 1797 A. M. Bennett Beggar Girl (1813) I. 214 In the afternoon tea-way, her bar exhibited the genteel thing. 1809 Malkin Gil Blas i. xii. ¶4, I should want for nothing in the bread and water way! 1823 J. Badcock Dom. Amusem. 170 Sheet lead, which comes to us in the way of lining round tea-chests. 1835 Dickens Sk. Boz, Making a Night of it, It was his ambition to do something in the celebrated ‘kiddy’ or stage-coach way. 1837 ― Pickw. lv, Mr. Solomon Pell, finding that nothing more was going forward, either in the eating or drinking way, took a friendly leave. 1875 Freeman Norm. Conq. (ed. 2) III. xiii. 305 He did a good deal in the way of ravaging. 1875 E. White Life in Christ iv. xxvii. (1878) 442 More certainty is attainable respecting some things which Divine Goodness will not do, than as to what it will do in the way of positive benefaction.

    18. a. Kind of occupation, work, or business. Now only more explicitly way of business. Formerly also † way of life = ‘walk of life’.

1690 Norris Beatitudes (1694) 81 If God would not accept an House of Prayer from a Man of a Military Way and Character, much less will he accept [etc.]. 1711 Addison Spect. No. 21 ¶8 To place their Sons in a way of Life where an honest Industry cannot but thrive. 1721 Lond. Gaz. No. 6020/4 Diapers, Damasks, Huckabacks, and all sorts of..Linnens in a Linnen-Draper's Way. 1727 Gay Begg. Op. i. ix, The Lawyers are bitter enemies to those in our way. 1752 Lond. Even.-Post 28–30 May 4/1 We hear that there hath been lately an Order made in some of the Royal Hospitals, that no Governor should serve them in his Way of Business. 1782 F. Burney Cecilia ix. vi, Her mother, she was sure, would never be at rest till he got into some higher way of life. 1787 T. Jefferson Writ. (1859) II. 90 The best workmen in this way, acknowledge that his is like a new art. 1791 Smeaton Edystone L. §293 This day the plumber completed every thing in his way about the balcony. 1920 Act 10 & 11 Geo. V c. 13 §2 (3) In the case of a seller who was in the same way of business before the war.

    b. Preceded by an attributive n. denoting the kind of commodity dealt in.

1760 Derrick Lett. (1767) I. 45 The different manufactures of this town, more particularly in the cutlery and toy way. 1766 Entick London IV. 114 There are several..wholesale traders in the haberdashery way. 1786 Phil. Trans. LXXVI. 27 note, [He] had some years past the honour to work in the instrument way under the direction of the late D{supr} Demainbray. 1788 Ann. Reg., Projects 93 A gentleman of ability in the steel way. 1838 Dickens Nich. Nick. iv, I am in the oil and colour way. 1841 Thackeray Gt. Hoggarty Diam. ii, It was a new house, but did a tremendous business in the fig and sponge way.

    c. in my (his, etc.) way: = in my (etc.) line; suited to my (etc.) capacity, tastes, or requirements. Chiefly in negative context. Cf. 37 d.

1806 J. Beresford Miseries Hum. Life i. Introd., Quoting from a dead language looks a little like skulking, and that's not at all in my way, as you know. 1863 Dickens Uncomm. Trav. xvii, One..is made angry by my modestly suggesting the possibility of Paris time being more in their way. a 1865 Mrs. Gaskell Wives & Dau. xiv, I knew it [sc. an agricultural meeting] wasn't much in his way. 1887 Birrell Obiter Dicta Ser. ii. 64 Research was not in his way.

    19. a. in a great, small way: (living) on a large or small scale of income and expenditure. Also with reference to the magnitude of a business establishment.

c 1750 J. Nelson Jrnl. (1836) 9 We..lived in a good way (as the world calls it), that is, in peace and plenty, and love to each other. 1779 Mirror No. 17, I was married, about five years ago, to a young man in a good way of business as a grocer. 1815 Jane Austen Emma ii, Having brothers already established in a good way in London. Ibid. xxii, The elder sister..was very well married, to a gentleman in a great way, near Bristol, who kept two carriages! 1833 Carlyle in Fraser's Mag. July 27/1 Next, however, as another more lasting resource, he forges; at first in a small way. 1849 Thackeray Pendennis viii, It was very right that he should take lodgings in his aunt's house, who lived in a very small way. 1864 Law Times' Rep. N.S.X. 719/1 The defendants..were contractors and builders in a large way of business. 1885 Field 26 Sept. 476/1 Young men..go headlong into some big scheme they take into their heads..instead of starting cautiously and in a small way.

    b. in a big way: on a large scale, intensively; (colloq.) with great enthusiasm or display; very much, very well. orig. U.S.

[1903 Dialect Notes II. 306 Big way (to get in a), v. phr., to become excited. ‘The preacher got in a big way and you could hear him a mile.’] 1927 F. Harris My Life & Loves III. v. 69, I meant to take up the whole problem of journalism in a big way when I came back. 1932 N.Y. Times Bk. Rev. 10 Jan. 17/3 A gangster who calls himself Napoleon and who goes in for crime in a big way. 1936 H. L. Ickes Diary 30 June (1955) I. 626 The speech went over in a big way. 1943 J. S. Huxley TVA vii. 51 Over half a million acres..of fishable water..are already being taken advantage of in a big way. 1950 C. MacInnes To Victors ii. 211, I could go for her in a big way. 1955 A. Huxley Let. 18 Mar. (1969) 738 Amanita muscaria..he thinks will open the doors of ESP in a big way. 1958 Times Rev. Industry Dec. 57/2 Users of traditional materials are looking to the..use of..plastics in a big way. 1980 A. Mars-Jones Lantern Lect. & Other Stories (1981) 10 The Trust people played hard-to-get until he started bequeathing the property..to the Welsh nationalists. Then they sat up and took notice In A Big Way.

    † 20. In the 17–18th c. often used for: A particular form of church government or polity. Obs.

a 1647 [see congregational 3]. 1648 J. Cotton Way of Congreg. Ch. i. iii. 1 Nor is Independency a fit name of the way of our Churches. 1651 Baxter Inf. Bapt. 145 The Episcopall Party are far more confirmed in their way by it. 1737 Waterland Eucharist 449 From our own Divines I may next proceed to some learned Foreigners, of the Lutheran way. 1750 [see Presbyterian a. 1].

    21. a. The customary or usual manner of acting or behaving.

1613 Shakes. Hen. VIII, iii. i. 157 Why shold we (good Lady) Vpon what cause wrong you? Alas, our Places, The way of our Profession is against it. 1700 Congreve Way of World v. xiii, Even so Sir, 'tis the way of the World, Sir. 1729 Law Serious C. i. 13 Here you see, that one person has Religion enough, according to the way of the world, to be reckon'd a pious Christian. 1830 tr. Caillié's Trav. Timbuctoo I. 94, I tried in vain to discover the origin of this whimsical custom; the only answer I could obtain was, ‘It is our way’. 1839 Thackeray Fatal Boots Jan., Living with dukes and peeresses, and writing my recollections of them, as the way now is. 1850 ― Pendennis lvi, Almost every person [in this story], according to his nature,..and according to the way of the world as it seems to us, is occupied about Number One.

    b. pl. Customary modes of behaviour; usages, customs.

1742 Fielding J. Andrews i. iii, He..was..as entirely ignorant of the ways of this world as an infant just entered into it could possibly be. 1893 F. T. Richards in Traill Soc. Eng. i. 10 Contending parties among the barbarians looked for Roman support, courted it by assuming Roman ways, and invited Roman interference. 1884 W. C. Smith Kildrostan 46 We judge a stranger by our home-bred ways, Who, maybe, walks by other rule of right.

    22. a. A habitual or characteristic manner of action, behaviour, expression, or the like. Often in collective plural.
    it is (only) his way: often said of some perverse or annoying habit of behaviour which the friends of the person guilty of it are accustomed to regard with toleration. So proverbially, Pretty Fanny's way (after quot. a 1718). † after my way: in accordance with my custom.

1709 Steele Tatler No. 6 ¶1 Now upon any Occasion, they only cry, 'Tis her Way, and That's so like her. 1709 ― Ibid. No. 45 ¶6 As it is my Way to write down all the good Things I have heard in the last Conversation to furnish my Paper, I can from this only tell you my Sufferings and my Pangs. 1711 Addison Spect. No. 90 ¶7, I was, after my Way, in Love with both of them. a 1718 Parnell Elegy to Old Beauty 34 And all that's madly wild, or oddly gay, We call it only pretty Fanny's way. 1748 Richardson Clarissa (1768) III. 103 The free dislike I expressed to his ways, his manners, and his contrivances. 1779 Mirror No. 25, I was about to be angry; but on such occasions it is not my way to say much. 1779 Ibid. No. 47 ¶4 He often indulges in jokes..which could not be heard without a blush from any other person; but from Tom, for his way is known, they are heard without offence. 1800 E. Hervey Mourtray Fam. II. 269 Henry gone! without our knowing any thing about the letter; and all by your slow ways! 1824 Scott St. Ronan's i, The exuberant frolics of Meg's temper, which were to them only ‘pretty Fanny's way’. 1857 G. A. Lawrence Guy Livingstone vi, She had the ways of a child petted all its life through. 1865 Dickens Mut. Fr. i. vi, I ought to have begun with a word of explanation: but it's my way to make short cuts at things. 1871 Lowell Pope Writ. 1890 IV. 15 Dryden, in his rough-and-ready way, has hinted at this in his verses to Congreve. 1884 W. C. Smith Kildrostan 79 He settled near us In the next glen, and lived a sumptuous life, Costly, luxurious, though his ways were coarse. 1899 Allbutt's Syst. Med. VIII. 217 The teacher may observe slow action, wandering eyes, twitchings, awkward ways, or stooping.

    b. pl. Habits, usual modes of acting (of an animal); † (of a horse) acquired habits, accomplishments.

1706 Lond. Gaz. No. 4285/8 Stolen or strayed.., a roan Mare.., all her Ways, except Pacing. 1899 W. T. Greene Cage-Birds 68 The Red-sided Tit is nearly akin to the Liothrix, which it resembles in many of its ways.

    c. transf. Occas. with reference to a thing: A tendency or liability to some particular kind of action.

1883 Manch. Guard. 3 Oct. 7/2 A policy has a way of becoming unrecognisable when it is administered by a man who does not believe in it. 1918 Times Lit. Suppl. 14 Mar. 122/3 Each of our nerves has a nature of its own and ways of its own.

    d. to have a way with one: to have a persuasive manner. Also in plural (usually with qualifying word) applied to ingratiating tricks of manner.

1711 R. Martin in E. H. Burton Life Bp. Challoner (1909) I. iii. 33 Saying yt he'd make a most excellent missioner; he had such an honest way with him. 1840 Dickens Old C. Shop iv, Quilp has such a way with him when he likes, that the best-looking woman here couldn't refuse him if..he chose to make love to her. 1872 Lever Ld. Kilgobbin lxxviii, All your little beguiling ways and insinuating tricks. 1877 Patmore Unkn. Eros, Departure 1 It was not like your great and gracious ways! 1901 Athenæum 27 July 120/2 Sticking through thick and thin to the fascinating good-for-nothing who has a way with him.

    IV. 23. Uses of ways as a singular. a. The genitive ways (OE. weᵹes) occurs in many advb. phrases in which it is combined with a preceding pronominal adj. Most of these phrases came to be written as single words, and are treated as such in this Dict.: see anyways, noways, otherways (OE. óðres weᵹes) and -ways suffix. Other similar collocations, now Obs. or dial., are each ways, this ways, that ways, which ways, the same ways, synonymous with ‘each way’, ‘this way’, etc. (see 9 a, 9 b, 14 d).
    † Occas. also with a prep., as in each ways, by this ways.

11.. O.E. Chron. an. 1016, [Hi] wendon him suðweard oðres weᵹes. c 1205 Lay. 18702 ælches weies [c 1275 weyes] him wes wa. Ibid. 25428 Neoren hit noht cnihtes no þes wæies idihte. a 1225 Leg. Kath. 1984 Þis pinfule gin wes o swuch wise iginet, þæt te twa turnden eiðer wiðward oðer; & anes weis baðe: þe oðer twa turnden anes weis alswa. a 1225 Juliana 42 Sei me ȝet witerluker, quod ha, hwuches weis ȝe wurcheð ant bicherreð godes children. c 1230 Hali Meid. (Bodl. MS.) 112 Hit is þah i wedlac summes weies to þolien. 1338 R. Brunne Chron. (1725) 123 Roberd þe Marmion þe same wayes did he, He robbed þorgh treson þe kirke of Couentre. c 1420 Contin. Brut ccxli. (E.E.T.S.) 352 Þe tokyn ij smale tewellys.., and caste þe tewellys aboute þe Dukis nek..; and þan þei drowen her towellis eche wayez. 1530 Palsgr. 421/1 He hath altered his stayre another wayes, il a coutourne ses degrez tout aultrement. 1585–6 Earl of Leicester Corr. (Camden) 463 Before which tyme, the winde beinge as it was, the fleete wolde be gonne over landes end, and passe that waies to the seas. 1590 Payne Brief. Descr. Irel. (1841) 9 Let the slope side of your ditch be towardes your marraine, and that wayes throw vp all your earth. 1597 Beard Theatre God's Judgem. (1612) 20 He could not tell which wayes to turn himselfe. 1598 Shakes. Merry W. ii. ii. 50, i pray your worship come a little neerer this waies. 1622 Callis Stat. Sewers (1647) 127 Doctor Bonhams Case, fol. 119 in the same Report, wherein the principal Case there put sways the same ways. 1896 G. Chanter Witch of Withyford xiv. 170 Going..up over the track that ways to Witches' Combe.

    b. Similarly to go, come one's ways (also † on one's ways), synonymous with to go, come one's way (see 7 b), and parallel to the G. er ging seines weges. In the later period a loose use of the plural may have coalesced with the use of the advb. genitive.
    Now only dial. and vulgar, and chiefly in the imperative; in rustic use come thy ways is often addressed playfully to children and animals.

c 893 ælfred Oros. 21 Þonne rideð ælc hys weᵹes mid ðan feo. 13.. Cursor M. 22063 (Edinb.), [Satan shall be] laisid at te laste..to walc his waiis forþe [Cott. his forth; other texts his way] fra þat quile. 1450–1530 Myrr. Our Ladye i. xxii. 57 He anon lefte there the stynkeynge body that he appered in, & wente hys wayes. c 1460 Macro Plays, Wisdom 878 Turne þi weys! þou gost a-myse. 1576 Gascoigne Kenelworth Castle Wks. 1910 II. 101 And death..will end my dayes, As soone as you shall..wish to go your wayes. 1581 Rich Farew. Bb ij, To conueigh her..a sute of mannes apparell: wherin the next daie in the after noone,..she should shift herself, and so come her waies vnknowne of any, to suche a place. Ibid. Bb iij, Alberto, seyng matters so throughlie concluded, tooke his leaue of theim bothe, and goyng his waies home, he caused all his daughters apparell to be looked together. 1600 Shakes. A.Y.L. i. ii. 221 You meane to mocke me after: you should not haue mockt me before: but come your waies. 1610 ― Temp. ii. ii. 85 Come on your wayes: open your mouth. 1701 Farquhar Sir H. Wildair v. vi, Go thy ways for a true Pattern of the Vanity, Impertinence, Subtlety, and Ostentation of thy Country. 1768 Goldsm. Good-n. Man i. i, Well, go thy ways, Sir William Honeywood. 1815 Scott Guy M. viii, ‘Ride your ways,’ said the gipsy, ‘ride your ways, Laird of Ellangowan’. 1840 Dickens Old C. Shop lxxii, Go thy ways with him, sir,..and Heaven be with ye both! 1884 Chesh. Gloss., Come thy ways, a coaxing way of calling an animal; or even of addressing children.

    c. In a good ways, great ways, little ways, long ways, the origin of the use of ways for way is obscure. Also without qualifying adj. Now only dial. and U.S.
    It might possibly have arisen from the analogy of phrases containing the advb. genitive (see a and b). There is no known instance in OE. of such a construction as *l{yacu}tel weᵹes (= ‘paululum viæ’), which might possibly account for it.

1588 Parke tr. Mendoza's Hist. China 289 They..came vnto the gates of the cittie, after they had gon a good wayes in the suburbs. 1594 R. Ashley tr. Loys Le Roy 105 b, Selim Ottoman..assailed him with a mightie armie, a good waies within his owne kingdome. 1749 Fielding Tom Jones xii. iii, Not that I hope..to live to any such Age as that neither—But if it be only to eighty or ninety: Heaven be praised, that is a great Ways off yet. 1809 Byron To Mr. Hodgson 25 June, Falmouth..is no great ways from the sea. 1841 Catlin N. Amer. Ind. xli. II. 62 The beautiful Arabian..must..be a great ways further South than this. 1845 S. Judd Margaret i. xiv. 113 ‘It is only a little ways,’ replied she, ‘and I went clear down to the village to-day alone.’ 1890 Bickley Surrey Hills III. 206 Maybe 'ee's lost his ways. 1895 S. Crane Red Badge v, His mouth was still a little ways open. 1907 J. H. McCarthy Needles & Pins xiii, The man staggered a little ways across the hall and fell in a heap. 1927 W. Faulkner Mosquitoes 202 I'll carry you a ways, until we get somewhere. 1933 Bloomfield Language ii. 40 A speaker can be heard only a short ways and only for an instant or two. 1938 T. Wilder Our Town i. 52 Can I walk along a ways with you? 1976 New Yorker 15 Mar. 67/1 As it passed over the ridge to land on the other side it hit a tree quite a ways up. 1979 N. Mailer Executioner's Song (1980) i. xxix. 445 Though I suppose at some point in the future..he may be eligible for parole, that's a long long ways away.

    V. Idiomatic phrases.
    * with governing verb.
    For clear the way, fetch way (Naut.), gather way (Naut.), give way, pave the way, see the verbs.
    24. have way. (See 6 above.) † a. To be allowed liberty of action. Obs.

1603 Shakes. Meas. for M. v. 238 Let me haue way, my Lord, To finde this practise out.

    b. Of feelings or their manifestation: To find vent.

1846 James Step-mother xxxii, He evidently strove to speak calmly, but the father's apprehensions would have way, and his voice trembled, and his lip quivered. 1883 D. C. Murray Hearts xix, Tom dropped his face into his hands, and a scalding tear or two had way in spite of him.

    25. make way. a. To open a passage, remove obstacles to progress, to facilitate passage or entrance. (See 6 above.) Const. for, † to, or † dative.

c 1200 Trin. Coll. Hom. 91 Ðo þe þe weie makeden biforen him bien folkes lorþeawes. c 1330 R. Brunne Chron. Wace (Rolls) 1555 Þorow þe host he made hem [? read hym] weye. On ilk a side he dide þem deye. a 1400–50 Bk. Curtasye 533 in Babees Bk., Byfore þe cours þo stuarde comes þen, Þe seruer hit next of alle kyn men Mays way and stondes by syde, Tyl alle be serued at þat tyde. c 1450 Merlin xxxii. 655 Gawein com thourgh the presse makinge wey with the trenchaunt suerde. 1567 J. Maplet Gr. Forest 68 b, And the fift or odde Crane in maner of a persiue sterne, to make the other way in the Ayre, flieth all alone before. 1588 Parke tr. Mendoza's Hist. China 184 They were carried in little chayres vpon mens backes, and the Captaine..before them making way. 1593 Shakes. 2 Hen. VI, iv. viii. 62 My sword make way for me, for heere is no staying. 1616 R. C. Times' Whistle (1871) 81 Wher gold makes way Ther is no interruption. 1638 R. Baker tr. Balzac's Lett. (vol. II) 107 Hee seemes to thinke..that vertue had neede of delight, to make way for her into the soule. 1693 Locke Educ. §140 All the World forwardly joyn to oppose and defeat them: whilst the open, fair, wise Man has every Body to make way for him, and goes directly to his Business.

    † b. Of ground: To allow of passage. Obs.

c 1300 K. Horn 1489 (Laud MS.) Þe sond by gan to drye And hyt hym makede weye.

    c. To move from one's place so as to allow a person to pass.

c 1400 Mandeville (Roxb.) xxv. 120 He commaundez þe lordes þat rydez nere him to make way þat þe men of religioun may comme to him. 1593 Shakes. Rich. II, v. ii. 110 Make way, vnruly Woman. 1842 Borrow Bible in Spain vii, A Portuguese or Spaniard will seldom make way for a stranger, till called upon or pushed aside. 1911 Gouldsbury & Sheane Gt. Plateau N. Rhodesia 259 If a young man sees his mother-in-law coming along the path, he must retreat into the bush and make way for her.

    d. To leave a place vacant for a successor or substitute.

1760–72 H. Brooke Fool of Qual. (1809) III. 122 When my family..were thus turned out of doors, an old follower made way for them in his own cottage, and retired..to a cow-house hard by. a 1828 H. Neele Lit. Rem. (1829) 33 The tragedies of Shakspeare were driven from the stage to make way for those of Addison and Rowe. 1853 Kingsley Hypatia xxx, If they [the philosophers] had no better Gospel than that to preach, they must make way for those who had. 1869 Freeman Norm. Conq. III. xii. 151 His castle..has been wantonly destroyed to make way for one of the barbarous official buildings of modern France. 1896 Law Times C. 407/2 At Durham..[Sir Charles] refused to stand, and his refusal made way for the present Lord Herschell.

    e. To make progress on a journey or voyage. Often with qualifying word, as to make good, much, little way. (Cf. 7 above.)
    (a) Naut. (see 7 i).

1490 Caxton Eneydos xxvii, 97 Castyng her sight ferder towarde the see, she sawe the saylles, wyth the flote of the shippes that made good waye. 1556 Toweson in Hakluyt Voy. (1589) 98 The windes and seas were high, yet we made some way. a 1626 Bacon New Atl. 1 The Winde..setled in the West for many dayes, so as we could make little or no way. 1624 Capt. J. Smith Virginia iii. vi. 60 We seeing them prepare to assault vs, left our Oares and made way with our sayle to incounter them. 1626 ― Accid. Yng. Seamen 29 Fetch the log-line to try what way shee makes. 1744 M. Bishop Life 49 We lost our Main top Mast, so that after the Storm was over we could not make any Way. 1791 Smeaton Edystone L. §155 Our vessels..made better Way in a rough sea. 1837 Marryat Dog-Fiend xlii, He stood up on the choak to ascertain what way she was making through the water. 1882 H. De Windt Equator 75 The river, however, widened to nearly a mile in breadth..and we made better way.

    (b) gen. Also fig.

1588 Shakes. Tit. A. ii. ii. 24 And I haue horse will follow where the game Makes way. 1590 Spenser F.Q. i. i. 39 He making speedy way through spersed ayre. a 1593 Marlowe & Nashe Dido 221 æneas is my name..With twise twelue Phrigian ships I plowed the deepe, And made that way my mother Venus led. 1596 Shakes. Tam. Shr. i. i. 239 Waite you on him,..While I make way from hence to saue my life. 1820 Scott Monast. Introd. Ep., So great is the difference betwixt reading a thing one's self, making toilsome way through all the difficulties of manuscript, and, as the man says in the play, ‘having the same read to you’. 1845 M{supc}Culloch Taxation iii. ii. (1852) 446 Should the system [of life annuities] not make any greater way than it has done, it may not..be worth objecting to. 1860 Mozley Univ. Serm. vii. (1876) 182 See..how little way they have made in truly spiritual, unselfish affections and inclinations. 1882 Besant All Sorts xviii, And he made no more way with his wooing. That was stopped, apparently, altogether. 1883 F. M. Peard Contrad. i, His companion..was making rapid way towards the point. 1888 Bryce Amer. Commw. xxxix. II. 71 There are some signs the view is making way.

    † f. To make a hole in, through. Obs.

1581 A. Hall Iliad iv. 73 That of the staffe the steeled point made in his forehead way. 1596 Shakes. Tam. Shr. ii. 155 With that word she stroke me on the head, And through the instrument my pate made way. 1611 Cotgr., Faire jour à, to make way vnto.

    † g. Of an event or action: To lead to, afford facilities for something; to render it possible to do something. Obs.

1646 H. Lawrence Commun. & War with Angels 14 And this will not be unusefull to consider since it makes way to shew to what end they appeare and what they..can doe for us. 1677 Temple Moxa Miscell. (1680) 194 About which time [the age of forty] the natural heat beginning to decay, makes way for those distempers. a 1715 Burnet Own Time iii. viii. (1900) II. 143 This made way to more desperate undertakings.

    † h. to make way to: to approach (a person) with a view to establishing relations with him.

1671 Milton Samson 481, I already have made way To some Philistian Lords, with whom to treat About thy ransom.

    26. make one's (its) way. (Cf. 7 above.) a. To travel or proceed in an intended direction or to a certain place. to make the best of one's way (also, † to make one's best way): to go as quickly as one can; † to decamp.

c 1400 Mandeville (Roxb.) xxxiv. 156, I made my way..vnto Rome. 1582 N. Lichefield tr. Castanheda's Conq. E. Ind. i. iii. 7 b, The rest then departed,..making their waye into the Sea, with a South southwest winde. 1668 Clarendon Contempl. Ps. Tracts (1727) 473 Those who..make their way through a sea of blood and rapine to grasp an authority which belonged not to them. 1697 Dryden Virg. Georg. iii. 395 He makes his way o're Mountains, and contemns Unruly Torrents, and unfoorded Streams. 1705 Addison Italy Monaco, etc. 4 The next Day we again set Sail, and made the best of our way 'till we were forc'd, by contrary Winds, into St. Remo. 1742 Fielding J. Andrews i. xvi, The Thief..without any Ceremony, stepped into the Street, and made the best of his Way. 1836 Thirlwall Greece xxii. III. 215 A very small number made their way to Ambracia. 1840 Dickens Old C. Shop xxiii, With that they parted; Mr. Swiveller to make the best of his way home and sleep himself sober; and Quilp [etc.]. 1844 Disraeli Coningsby vii. iv, Coningsby bade his friend farewell till the morrow, and made his best way to the Castle. 1849 Macaulay Hist. Eng. iii. I. 366 Hardly any gentleman had any difficulty in making his way to the royal presence. 1864 Trollope Small House at Allington xxi, Johnny made his way on to the road by a stile that led out of the copse. Ibid., Then we'll make the best of our way home, and have a glass of wine there. 1874 Green Short Hist, vi. §4. 300 It was in despair of reaching Italy that the young scholar [Erasmus] made his way to Oxford.

    † b. To effect a passage by force, force one's way. Obs.

1647 Clarendon Hist. Reb. vi. §157 But if they compelled him to make his way, and enter the town by force, it would not be in his power to keep his soldiers from taking that which they should win with their blood.

    c. To make progress in one's career; to advance in wealth, station, reputation, etc. by one's own efforts.

1605 Shakes. Lear v. iii. 29 If thou do'st As this instructs thee, thou dost make thy way To Noble Fortunes. 1711 Addison Spect. No. 123 ¶4 He was to make his Way in the World by his own Industry. 1771 Smollett Humph. Cl. 18 July ii. (1815) 261, I am not at all surprised that these Scots make their way in every quarter of the globe. 1853 Lytton My Novel ii. vi, A young man who has his own way to make in life had better avoid all intimacy with those of his own age who have no kindred objects.

    † d. To find means to do something. Obs.

a 1300 Cursor M. 23179 Quat he war wijs þat moght Stedfast hald þis dai in thoght!.. For þan mund he her make his wai Fra wrak to were him on þat dai.

    † e. (Also † to make one's ways.) To gain favour, establish relations with a person. Obs.

1618 Ralegh Apol. Wks. 1751 II. 250 It was bruited..that..being once at Liberty,..having made my Way with some foreign Prince, I would turn Pirate. a 1660 Contemp. Hist. Irel. (Ir. Archæol. Soc.) II. 37 He made his waies with Colonell Monke, Governor of Dundalke, for the Parliament, and bought of him worth {pstlg}1500 of amunition.

    f. Of a thing. to make its way: to travel, make progress; (of an opinion, custom, etc.) to gain acceptance.

1656 Cowley To Sir W. Davenant 35 Thy Fancy like a Flame its way does make, And leave bright Tracks for following Pens to take. 1711 Addison Spect. No. 119 ¶6 This infamous Piece of Good-breeding, which reigns among the Coxcombs of the Town, has not yet made its way into the Country. 1861 M. Pattison Ess. (1889) I. 48 It might have been anticipated that Luther's doctrines would have made their way early among this little colony of his countrymen. 1874 J. T. Micklethwaite Mod. Par. Churches 80 Brass instruments have already begun to make their way.

    27. pay one's way. † a. To defray one's expenses on a journey. Obs.

a 1825 Willie Wallace vi. in Child Ballads III. 271/2 Take ye that, ye belted knight, 'T will pay your way till ye come down.

    b. To succeed in paying one's expenses as they arise, without incurring debts. Of a business undertaking, to pay its way: To be carried on at least without loss, to be self-supporting.

1803 G. Colman John Bull ii. iii. 22, I earned my fair profits; I paid my fair way. 1823 Byron Age of Bronze xiv, But bread was high, the farmer paid his way. 1858 Trollope Three Clerks iii, Mrs. Woodward..had there maintained a good repute, paying her way from month to month as widows with limited incomes should do. 1885 Times (weekly ed.) 2 Oct. 15/3 The pier has never come near paying its way. 1892 Law Times' Rep. LXVII. 139/1 It seems to me a most reasonable thing for a person applying for shares to look for a guarantee of interest until the concern can pay its own way. 1899 Lady M. Verney Verney Mem. IV. 155 By great economy John has just paid his way.

    28. see one's way. a. In literal sense, to have a view of the portion of the road or route immediately before one, so as to be able to avoid wandering or stumbling. b. fig. in obvious metaphorical uses; now often, to know that some object is attainable (const. to); also (chiefly in negative contexts) to feel justified in deciding to do something.

1774 Burke Let. to Marq. Rockingham 25 Sept., I must see my way much more clearly before me, before I take any other step in that business. 1775 ― Sp. Concil. Amer. 22 Mar. 56, I do not absolutely assert the impracticability of such representation [of the Colonies]. But I do not see my way to it. 1823 Keble Serm. iii. (1848) 64 To see his way safely, if not clearly or comfortably, through all the snares of error and disputation. 1861 M. Pattison Ess. (1889) I. 33 Simple fighting John Bull can understand, but in a negotiation he can't see his way. 1865 Mrs. Newby Comm. Sense lv. III. 44, I feel that I know my business pretty well already, and that I begin to see my way. Ibid. lvi. III. 55, I wish I could do more..but I think I see a way. 1870 Newman Gram. Assent ii. ix. 353 Laud said that he did not see his way to come to terms with the Holy See, till Rome was ‘other than she is’. 1875 Helps Soc. Press. ii. 24 The neighbours do not see their way to altering it. 1885 Law Times LXXIX. 342/1 He did not see his way clear to allow their names to remain upon the register. 1886 Manch. Exam. 16 Jan. 5/4 Lord Salisbury has at last seen his way to the final choice of a bishop for Manchester.

    29. a. take the way. (Cf. sense 4 and take v. 25 b.) To enter on and follow the route leading to a specified place. In early use sometimes without mention of destination; † To set out, travel.

c 1300 Harrowing of Hell (Harl. MS.) 38 In godned toke he þen way Þat to helle gates lay. 13.. Guy Warw. (A.) 1708 Gij him spedde niȝt & day; Into Inglond he toke þe way. 1375 Barbour Bruce ii. 146 All him alane the way he tais Towart the towne off Louchmabane. c 1386 Chaucer Man of Law's T. 556 The Constable and his wyf also And Custance han ytake the righte way Toward the see. c 1420 ? Lydg. Assembly of Gods 551 Wherfore Cerberus tooke the next way. c 1485 Digby Myst., Christ's Burial & Resurr. 983 Then let us tak þe way furth strayte. a 1533 Ld. Berners Huon lxii. 215 They departyd & tooke the way towardes Rome. 1801 Scott Eve St. John 86 O fear not the priest,..For to Dryburgh the way he has ta'en. 1831 ― Ct. Rob. xxxiv, Count Robert subjected himself to necessity,..and..took the way to Europe by sea. 1831 James Phil. Augustus xx, Here the anchorite bade God speed him, and, turning his steps back again, took the way to his hut.

    † b. To go about to do something. Also, to take its course without interference. Obs.

1605 Bacon Adv. Learn. ii. xvii. §9. 64 That opinion..hath beene of ill desert, towardes Learning, as that which taketh the way, to reduce Learning to certaine emptie and barren Generalities. a 1700 Dryden Theod. & Hon. 138 Give me leave to seize my destin'd Prey, And let eternal Justice take the way.

    30. to take one's way. To set out on a journey; to journey, travel.

a 1300 Cursor M. 11382 Þis kinges thre þar wai þai tok A tuelmoth ar þe natiuite. 1338 R. Brunne Chron. (1810) 327 After þe enterment þe kyng tok his way. To þe south he went þorgh Lyndesay. 1375 Barbour Bruce xviii. 114 For the laiff has thair vayis tane Till the Erische kyngis. c 1386 Chaucer Melib. ¶2996 And right anon they tooken hire wey to the Court of Melibee. c 1450 St. Cuthbert (Surtees) 7456 His way barfote þan he toke. 1484 Caxton Fables of Poge vii, Sayinge these wordes [the foxe] toke his waye & ranne as fast as he myght. 1498 Cov. Leet Bk. 588 And they came forth at þe south durre in þe Mynstere & toke their wey thurgh the newe bildyng downe þe Bailly-lane. c 1600 Shakes. Sonn. xlviii. 1 How carefull was I, when I tooke my way, Each trifle vnder truest barres to thrust. 1642–4 Vicars God in Mount 149 Lord Paulet..took his way toward Myncard. 1667 Milton P.L. xii. 649 They hand in hand with wandring steps and slow, Through Eden took thir solitarie way. 1697 Dryden Virg. Georg. iii. 405 Alone, by Night, his watry Way he took; About him, and above, the Billows broke. 1761 Gray Odin 13 Onward still his way he takes. 1893 J. Ashby-Sterry Naughty Girl xviii. 157 As she took her way sadly and slowly down the pier.

    ** with prepositions.
    31. by the way. a. Along or near the road by which one travels; by the road-side. In early use also † by way.

971 Blickl. Hom. 15 Þa sæt þær sum blind þearfa be ðon weᵹe. c 1205 Lay. 26612 Whaðer heo liue weoren, þa heo bi wæie læien. a 1300 Cursor M. 8055 A riche man was þar bi wai Was seke, to him þan turnd þai. 1550 Crowley Epigr. 227 Than, by the waye syde, hym chaunced to se A pore manne that craued of hym for charitie. Whye (quod thys Marchaunt)..Do ye begge by the waye. 1879 Jefferies Wild Life in S. Co. ii. (1889) 17, I passed flocks of dying sheep: in the hollows by the way their skeletons were here and there to be seen.

    b. While going along, in the course of one's walk or journey. In early use † by way.

c 1000 Ags. Gosp. Luke x. 4 Ne bere ᵹe sacc..ne nanne man be weᵹe [Vulg. per viam] ne gretað. a 1122 O.E. Chron. (Laud MS.) an. 1096, Ac þes folces þe be Hungrie for, fela þusenda þær & be wæᵹe earmlice forforan. c 1290 Beket 1208 in S. Eng. Leg. 141 Þov hauest selde i-seiȝe Þene Erchebischop of caunterburi wende in swuche manere bi weie. a 1300 K. Horn 759 He fond bi þe weie Kynges sones tweie. 1387 Trevisa Higden III. 115 Þe kyng..wente homwarde, and was i-slawe by þe weie. 1550 Crowley Last Trumpet 31 The rauens fed him [sc. Elias] by the way. 1590 Shakes. Mids. N. iv. i. 204 Lets follow him, and by the way let vs recount our dreames. 1617 Moryson Itin. i. 204 By the way, in this mornings journey, we did see Weyssenburg, a free but not imperiall City. 1719 De Foe Crusoe i. (Globe) 156 Nor is it possible to describe..what strange unaccountable Whimsies came into my Thoughts by the Way. 1760 [see by prep. 12]. 1898 M. Pemberton Phantom Army i. vii, It had been in his mind when he rode out of Zaragoza that he would find an early opportunity by the way to question the gipsy.

fig. 1603 Shakes. Meas. for M. v. 458 His Act did not ore⁓take his bad intent, And must be buried but as an intent That perish'd by the way.

    c. fig. with reference to the tenor of discourse: Incidentally, in passing, as a side-topic.

1556 Robinson tr. More's Utopia i. (Arb.) 38 margin, Land⁓lordes by the wai checked for Rent-raisyng. 1581 J. Bell Haddon's Answ. Osor. 45 Whiche I thought meete to touch briefly by the way. 1598 Shakes. Merry W. i. iv. 150 Shee is pretty, and honest, and gentle, and one that is your friend, I can tell you that by the way. 1620 T. Granger Div. Logike 100 They are inferred often by the way for illustration sake. 1632 Lithgow Trav. v. 228 And now by the way I recall the aforesayd Turke. 1731 Art of Drawing & Paint. 32 But we must take this by the Way, that in the refining of it, two Ounces will not produce above 40 Grains of good Colour. 1847 H. Goodwin Serm. Ser. i. viii. 131, I would hint to you by the way, that we are perhaps not fair judges of our own actions.

    d. used parenthetically to apologize for introducing a new topic, a casual remark, or the like.

a 1614 Donne Biathanatos (1644) 99 Though, by the way, this may not passe so generally, but that it must admit the exception, which the Rule of Law upon which it is grounded, carries with it. 1668 Dryden Ess. Dram. Poesy 46, I mean besides the Chorus, or the Monologues, which by the way, show'd Ben. no enemy to this way of writing. c 1730 Burt Lett. N. Scot. (1754) II. 97 By the Way, altho' the Weather was not warm, he was without Shoes, Stockings, or Breeches. 1836 Dickens Sk. Boz, Sentiment, This, by the way, was another bit of diplomacy. 1840 Thackeray Barber Cox Feb., When we lost sight of him, and of his little account, too, by the way. 1884 Rider Haggard Dawn xxvii, By the way, talking of letters, there was one came for you this morning in your Cousin Philip's handwriting.

    e. in predicative or complemental use.

1564 T. Dorman Proofe Cert. Art. Relig. 95 b, This is yow saie but by the waie, before yow entre into the matter. 1652 Nedham tr. Selden's Mare Cl. 46 Also, a word by the way, touching the Mediterranean Sea in possession of the Romanes. 1653 Ramesey Astrol. Restored 5 But this by the way, let us now proceed. 1719 De Foe Crusoe i. (Globe) 245 However, I allow'd Liberty of Conscience throughout my Dominions: But this is by the Way. 1904 Burnand Records & Remin. II. 285 But this by the way.

    f. As a by-work; as a subordinate piece of work.

1611 Cotgr. s.v. Passant, En passant, sleightly, lightly, cursarily, accidentally, by the way. a 1708 Beveridge Thes. Theol. (1711) III. 265 It is not to be done by the way, but with all our might. 1881 Jowett Thucyd. I. 91 Maritime skill is..not a thing to be cultivated by the way [ἐκ παρέργου] or at chance times.

    † g. Indirectly, by a side channel of information.

1605 Shakes. Macb. iii. iv. 130 Macb. How say'st thou that Macduff denies his person At our great bidding. La. Did you send to him Sir? Macb. I heare it by the way: But I will send.

    h. attrib. as adj. phr.: Incidental, casual, haphazard.

1869 Mrs. Whitney We Girls ii, At parting, she..said..in an off-hand, by-the-way fashion—‘Ruth’ [etc.]. 1881 F. Hueffer Wagner 32 The introduction in a by-the-way manner of the two great religious principles appears not particularly happy. 1881 Saintsbury Dryden i. 21 The ordinary prose style of the day..indulged..in every détour and involution of second thoughts and by-the-way qualifications.

    32. by way of ―. A prepositional phrase used in various senses. Also † by the way of. (The governed n. is usually without article.)
     † a. By means of; through the medium of; by the method of. Obs.

1390 Gower Conf. I. 69 This lord..spak so that be weie of schrifte He drowh hem [sc. the priests] unto his covine. 1439 in Fenland N. & Q. (1905) July 222 And yat..ye wole at yis tyme in yis oure grete necessite putte youre handes and ese us by wey of lone of ye somme of C marc. a 1450 Marg. of Anjou Let. to Dame J. Carew (Camden) 97 Burneby..desireth with all his hert to do yow worship by wey of marriage. 1495 Rolls of Parlt. VI. 493/2 That noo persone..be not empeached nor chargeable.., by wey of accion or otherwise. 1526 Pilgr. Perf. (W. de W. 1531) 2, I requyre you..that..ye neuer by way of curiosite be besy to attempte ony persone therin. 1530 Palsgr. 898 Diuerse comunications by way of dialoges. 1577–87 Holinshed Chron. III. 1149/2 To indamage some of his countries by waie of inuasion. 1598 R. Grenewey Tacitus, Ann. ii. xvi. (1622) 56 Flaccus..by way of great promises [per ingentia promissa], perswaded him..to enter into the Romane garrison. 1613 Shakes. Hen. VIII, iii. i. 54 We come not by the way of Accusation, To taint that honour euery good Tongue blesses. 1663 Gerbier Counsel 5 Master-work-men may receive Instructions by way of Draughts, Models, Frames, &c. 1675 J. Owen Indwelling Sin viii. (1732) 96 At least spiritual Sense is not radically in them, but only by way of Communication.

    † b. By the action of (a person or persons). Obs.

1447 in Reg. Mag. Sig. Scot. 1450, 70/2 Gif it happnis the said landis to be distroublit or vexit be way of Inglismen it sal be alowit to the said Alex. of the malis.

    † c. Law. by way of feat [= AF. par voye de fait]: see feat n. 1 b. Also (Sc.), by way of deed.

1535 Stewart Cron. Scot. III. 141 The tother part with haill power and mycht, Without ressone agane he wald persew, Be way of deid his richtis till reskew. 1564 Reg. Privy Council Scot. I. 275 In caise ather of the saidis partiis.., sall happin to be hurt, harmit, invadit, or persewit be utheris be way of deid. 1582–8 Hist. James VI (1864) 62 That na injure be done to ony subiect be way of deid.

    d. As an instance or a mode of; in the capacity or with the function of; as something equivalent to.
    [Cf. AF. ‘par voye de charite’, 1321 in Rolls Parlt. I. 393.]

13.. E.E. Allit. P. A. 580 By þe way of ryȝt to aske dome. c 1380 Wyclif Wks. (1880) 59 He were a cruel fadir þat myȝtte not ȝeue his owene childre bred..& ȝit wolde not suffre anoþer man to helpe þes children bi weie of mercy. c 1389 in Eng. Gilds (1870) 38 Also þese bretherin han ordeyned, be weye of charite, þat [etc.]. a 1400 Mandeville (1839) xviii. 199 The Kyng of that Contree, ones every ȝeer, ȝevethe leve to pore men to gon in to the Lake, to gadre hem precyous Stones and Perles, be weye of Alemesse. 1429 Rolls of Parlt. IV. 349/1 Bi weie of hongyng or keveryng. 1551 Sir J. Williams Accompte (Abbotsf. Club) 99 To be gevin vnto straungers by waie of his maiesties reward, vml li. 1589 Puttenham Eng. Poesie iii. xviii. (Arb.) 203 We be allowed now and then to ouer-reach a little by way of comparison. 1672 Villiers (Dk. Buckhm.) Rehearsal i. i. (Arb.) 31 My next Rule is the Rule of Record, and by way of Table-book. 1674 Essex Papers (Camden) I. 168 There ought to be a distinction made in Letters of that nature, betweene passing a thing over by way of Connivance and giving a Publick Liberty. 1711 Steele Spect. No. 78 ¶4 Nothing was wanting but some one to sit in the Elbow Chair, by way of President. 1712 Addison Ibid. No. 267 ¶2 Virgil makes his Heroe relate it by way of Episode. 1744 M. Bishop Life 260 Most of them were very industrious in selling one Thing or other by Way of turning the Peny to a good Use. 1749 Fielding Tom Jones iii. vii, I ask pardon for this short appearance, by way of chorus, on the stage. 1806 J. Beresford Miseries Hum. Life ii. §22 Attempting to spring carelessly..over a five⁓barred gate, by way of shewing your activity to a party of ladies. 1820 Byron Juan v. liii. note, In Turkey nothing is more common than for the Mussulmans to take several glasses of strong spirits by way of appetizer. 1842 Dickens Amer. Notes xiv, The drapers always having hung up at their door, by way of sign, a piece of bright red cloth. 1843 Prescott Mexico i. ii. I. 31 The sovereign..holding a golden arrow, by way of sceptre, in his left hand. 1856 Ruskin King Gold. Riv. i. 4 He used to clean..the plates, occasionally getting what was left on them, by way of encouragement. 1868 J. Bruce Digby's Voy. Mediterr. (Camden) Pref. p. x, Dr. Richard Farrar composed some lines upon him by way of epitaph. 1868 L. M. Alcott Little Women vi, ‘You'll have to go and thank him,’ said Jo, by way of a joke. 1892 Bookseller 17/1 The summary [of the Act] given by way of introduction is concise and clear.

    † e. by way of excellency (or eminence): = ‘par excellence.’ Obs.

1621–31 [see eminence 8 c]. 1643 [see eminency 8]. 1694 Locke Advers. Theol. in King Life (1858) 343 There is one Spirit manifestly distinguished from God, i.e. one created Spirit by way of excellency; i.e. the Holy Spirit. 1699 tr. Dupin's Hist. Canon O. & N. Test. I. 2 They are likewise styl'd the Scriptures by Way of Eminence. 1703 [see eminency 8]. a 1704 [see excellence 1 b]. 1711 Shaftesbury Charac. Misc. v. ii. III. 278 Have you writ..a Play, a Song, an Essay, or a Paper, as by way of Eminence, the current Pieces of our Weekly Wits are generally stil'd.

    f. Followed by gerund, forming predicative phrases with the sense: In the habit of (doing something); also, more usually, making a profession of, or having a reputation for (being or doing so-and-so). colloq.

1824 S. E. Ferrier Inher. xxxii, The Colonel was by way of introducing him into the fashionable circles. 1852 C. B. Mansfield Paraguay, etc. (1856) 182 A wiseacre passenger, who is by way of knowing the river well, says they are called capinchos in these parts. 1862 H. Kingsley Ravenshoe xlvii, Mary was ‘by way of’ helping Lady Hainault's maid, but she was very clumsy about it. 1877 Lady M. A. Broome Yr.'s Housekeeping S. Africa iv. 61 ‘Charlie,’ our groom, who is by way of being a very fine gentleman,..only condescends to work until he can purchase a wife. 1881 Mallock Rom. 19th Cent. iii. v. II. 34, I am by way, here, of doing the same thing. 1891 Sat. Rev. 18 July 77/1 Mr. Brander Matthews finds fault with the phrase ‘by way of being’, and says an American can hardly understand it... ‘By way of being’ is endeavouring or purporting to be, holding oneself out in a certain character, or being so reputed; and this with an implied disclaimer of precise knowledge or warranty on the speaker's part. 1897 Du Maurier Martian v. 236 The Gibsons were by way of spoiling me. Ibid. ix. 379 Nor did he..come across them at any house he was by way of frequenting. 1906 Lit. World 15 Nov. 515/1 The character of this woman, who is by way of being the female villain of the story, is drawn with skill.

    g. By the route which passes through or over (a specified place): = via prep. Also † by the way of.
    Formerly with omission of of, the place-name being prefixed to way. Cf. sense 9.

11.. O.E. Chron. (MS. F.) an. 888, Heo forðferde be Rome weᵹe [L. in itinere Rome]. 1460 Paston Lett. I. 515 He schall send his man hom be Newmarket wey. 1701 W. Wotton Hist. Rome 481 He went by the way of Illyricum. 1771 Smollett Humph. Cl. To Sir W. Phillips 21 Sept., We set out from Glasgow by the way of Lanark. 1865 Cornh. Mag. XI. 595 It invaded France by way of Avignon. 1901 T. J. Alldridge Sherbro xxvi. 291 From Bafodia we were diverging from the main road to Freetown which is by way of the Bumban hills.

    † h. Through the medium of (a person). Obs.

1560 Sir N. Throgmorton in Wright Q. Eliz. (1838) I. 49 The 29th of October last, I wrote to you from Paris by the waye of Monsieur de Chantonet.

    † 33. from the way: Out of the way, in a secluded place. Obs.

1593 Shakes. Lucr. 1144 Some darke deepe desert seated from the way,..Will wee find out.

    34. in the (etc.) way. (See also senses 16 a, 17–19.) † a. As one proceeds or goes along; in the course of one's journey (to a place). Also in one's way; in early use, in way. Cf. to take in one's way (sense 7). Obs.
    to do (a person, etc.) in the way: to send out (refl. to set forth) on a journey or expedition.

1297 R. Glouc. 3765 He..greiþede is noble ost & dude him in þe weye. a 1300 K. Horn 1007 Horn dude him in þe weie On a god Galeie. 13.. K. Alis. 3392 (Laud MS.), Þine Olifauntz & þine beest Do alle ordeyne on hast And do hem done in þe waye Þat hij weren in feld contreye. 13.. Guy Warw. 259 At Felice he tok his leue þo, and in his way he goþ apliȝt. 1377 Langl. P. Pl. B. xvii. 47 As we wenten þus in þe weye wordyng togyderes. 1382 Wyclif Gen. xlv. 24 Ne wraththe ȝe in the weye. c 1450 Mirk's Festial 9 He stervet yn þe way. 1629 Hobbes Thucyd. ii. 127 But they of Stratus, aware of this, whilest they were yet in their way..placed diuers Ambushes not farre from the Citie. c 1643 Ld. Herbert Autobiog. (1886) 140 Going from St. Julian's to Abergavenny, in the way to Montgomery Castle. 1712 Budgell Spect. No. 277 ¶11 If you please to call at my House in your Way to the City. 1748 Richardson Clarissa (1811) VII. 143 In the afternoon [she] was at Islington church, in her way home. 1791 Smeaton Edystone L. §264 The master of the floating light saw the buoy in his way to Plymouth. 1822 [Mary A. Kelty] Osmond I. 186 A heavy foreboding made her linger in her way to her own apartment.

    b. In Biblical use, to be or walk in the way with († mid) = to accompany a person on a journey; fig. to associate with.

c 950 Lindisf. Gosp. Matt. v. 25 Uæs ðu ᵹeðafsum wiðer⁓bracæ ðinum hraðe miððy bist in uoeᵹ mið him [Vulg. dum es in via cum eo]. 1611 Bible Prov. i. 15 My sonne, walke not thou in the way with them.

    c. (Chiefly in one's way.) On or along the road by which one travels; so as to be met, encountered, or observed.

c 1205 Lay. 26770 Wo wæs heom iboren þa iþan weie heom weoren biuoren. Ibid. 26793 In his wæiȝe þat he funde al he hit aqualde. a 1591 H. Smith Caveat Chr. Serm. (1601) 498 Sinne is not long in comming: nor quickly gone, vnlesse God stop vs, as hee met Balaam in his way. 1592 Shakes. Ven. & Ad. 879 Like one that spies an adder, Wreath'd vp in fatall folds iust in his way. 1610 ― Temp. ii. ii. 11 Like Hedg-hogs, which Lye tumbling in my bare-foote way. 1721 E. Ward Merry Trav. i. (1729) 35 Resolving to..moisten well our dusty Clay, At the next Alehouse in our Way. 1726 Swift Gulliver iv. i, I had not got far when I met one of these Creatures full in my way, and coming up directly to me. 1840 Dickens Old C. Shop xlii, She had gained a little wooden bridge, which..led into a meadow in her way.

    d. fig. in phrases like to come, fall, lie in (one's) way, to be met with in one's experience, to come within (one's) range of possible observation, utilization, or attainment. Similarly to lay, put, throw in (a person's) way. Also predicatively, in phrases like it will be (a certain sum of money, etc.) in my way = I shall gain (so much) in the specified contingency.

1596 Spenser State Irel. (Globe) 631/2 Under it [sc. his mantle] he can cleanly convay any fitt pillage that cometh handsomely in his way. 1596 Shakes. 1 Hen. IV, v. i. 28 Rebellion lay in his way, and he found it. 1605 [see fall v. 34]. 1617 J. Chamberlain in Crt. & Times Jas. I (1848) II. 43 It [sc. his having a son] may be a hundred thousand pounds in his way, if his father keep his word. a 1662 Duppa Rules & Helps Devot. i. (1675) 72 The Imagination..casting thoughts in our way, and forcing the Understanding to reflect upon them. 1677 Temple Moxa Miscell. (1680) 193 The General Officers of Armies,..the publick Ministers..(that have fallen in my way) being generally subject to it [sc. the Gout] in one degree or other. 1691 T. H[ale] Acc. New Invent. p. xii, It comes in my way here to retaliate to him. 1722 Wollaston Relig. Nat. v. 107 When one man alters the opinion of another by throwing a book, proper for that purpose, in his way. 1743 Bulkeley & Cummins Voy. S. Seas 154 We have now nothing to live on but Seal, and what Providence throws in our Way. 1744 M. Bishop Life 46 Though it might have been Thousands in my Way had I continued my Business. 1763 Cowper in Southey Life & Wks. (1835) I. 163 My friends must excuse me, if I write to none but those who lay it fairly in my way to do so. 1789 Wolcot (P. Pindar) Subj. Painters i. (note), Which will be a benefit ticket in Sir William's way. 1797 Jane Austen Pride & Prej. xliii, It might seem as if she had purposely thrown herself in his way again. 1828 Scott Tales Grandf. Ser. i. xxiv, A warrant empowering them to take all Portuguese vessels which should come in their way. 1841 S. Warren Ten Thou. II. vii. 189 They say he has a cousin who is one of the officers to the Sheriff of Middlesex, and puts a good many little things in his way! 1882 Besant All Sorts xxxi, These things he knew nothing of; they had not come in his way. 1888 M{supc}Carthy & Praed Ladies' Gall. II. ii. 19 Every actor whom it had come in my way to know..was a poor devil.

    e. In such a position, or of such a nature, as to obstruct, impede, or be an annoyance. Chiefly in phr. to be or stand in (one's) way, or in the way of (a person or thing); also to put, throw in (one's) way.

1500–20 Dunbar Poems xii. 14 Welth, warldly gloir, and riche array Ar all bot thornis laid in thy way. 1564 Brief Exam. B iij, Ye must..take heede, lest ye stande in your owne way. a 1700 Evelyn Diary 27 Aug. 1667, He thwarted some of them and stood in their way. a 1750 Ld. Dartmouth in Burnet Own Time (1900) II. 251 note, King Charles gave him [Godolphin] a short character when he was page,..of being never in the way, nor out of the way. 1773 Foote Bankrupt i. Wks. 1799 II. 99 To throw some confounded rub in the way. 1787 ‘G. Gambado’ Acad. Horsem. 41 Thus, then, you go off with eclat, provided nothing is in your horse's way; and if there is,..he will probably leap over it. 1796 F. Burney Camilla ii. iii. I. 183 [His] egotism..sacrificed his best friends and first duties, if they stood in its way. 1836 Dickens Sk. Boz, Sentiment, The smaller girls managed to be in everybody's way, and were pushed about accordingly. 1866 Le Fanu All in Dark xxxv, He would have been in the way—unutterably de trop. 1867 Trollope Last Chron. Barset II. lix. 159 She considers herself to have a claim upon [him]..and that I stand in her way. 1868 Freeman Norm. Conq. II. vii. 132 At such a moment as this, when one would have thought that horses were distinctly in the way. 1885 Manch. Exam. 11 June 4/7 The Liberal party will be bound in honour to throw no factious obstacles in their way. 1887 Baring-Gould Gaverocks II. xxiii. 17 His pride stood in the way of success.

    f. Within reach or call, at hand, get-at-able; in a place where things are going on or where one can be found readily. ? Now rare or Obs.

1598 R. Bernard Terence, Eun. v. ix. (1607) 188 Whether you be in the way, or out of the way [te praesente absente]. 1687 Miége Gt. Fr. Dict. ii. s.v., To be in the way, or in a readiness, se tenir prêt, ne pas s' écarter. 1729 Swift Direct. Serv. Gen. ¶1 When your Master or Lady call a Servant by Name, if that Servant be not in the Way, none of you are to answer. c 1760 Challoner in E. Burton Life (1909) II. xxiv. 28 We will spend our evenings..at our own lodgings, so that we may..be in the way for such as shall come for Instructions. 1814 Jane Austen Mansf. Park xviii, I came here to-day intending to rehearse it with Edmund..but he is not in the way. 1840 Dickens Old C. Shop viii, In order that..he might take care to be in the way at the time. 1859 H. Kingsley G. Hamlyn xxxix, I'm glad, too, to see you here. One feels safer when you're in the way. 1897 R. N. Bain tr. Jókai's Pretty Michal xxx. 229 He himself, however, had not been in the way when beauty was being served out.

    g. In the humour or mood (for what is going on). Obs. exc. dial.

1703 Rules of Civility 114 A sort of People never in the way, never pleas'd with any thing. 1856 J. Ballantine Poems 108 He is aye in the way for a crack.

    † h. (to be) in one's way: in the right course of action, within one's rights. Obs.

1689 Andros Tracts I. 111 Answer was made by the Deponent, that if we [the Watch] should kill them [suspicious persons resisting arrest], we were in our way, then Mr. Randolph..said, you are in the way to be hanged.

    i. once in a way: on a single (exceptional) occasion; as a solitary or rare instance; rarely, exceptionally; quasi-adj., of rare occurrence, exceptional. Also for once in a way.
    This phrase would seem to be a corruption of the earlier once and away, which may have meant originally ‘once and then go away’, ‘once and no more’, though all the instances quoted under once adv. 8 c admit of being interpreted in the sense above explained. Cf. once in a while (see once 8 c).

1842 Newman Ch. Fathers 302, I must beg indulgence once in a way, to engage myself in a dry and somewhat tedious discussion. 1853 [see once B. 9 b]. 1858 Trollope Dr. Thorne xix, Now I like this kind of thing once in a way. 1860 Reade Cloister & H. liii, They agreed to take a holiday for once in a way. 1913 Sat. Rev. 21 June 762/2 The case of Ulster..really offers him this luxury for once in a way.

    35. in the way of ―. (Or equivalent construction.) (See also sense 17.) † a. As a mode, instance, or manifestation of; as tantamount to or supplying the place of. Also in way of. Cf. by way of (32 d). Obs.

c 1450 Godstow Reg. 97 The Abbesse and the Couente..graunted..that, in the wey of charite, that they wold fynde for ever a prest conuenient þat shold do a prestis service every day, namely for the sowles of the forsaid peple. a 1513 Fabyan Chron. cxxvii. (1533) 62 Dagobert..bete his mayster, & after in way of dyspyte caused the berd of his tutour to be shauen of. 1534 Star Chamber Cases (Selden Soc.) II. 310 Onlesse your said highenes be good and gracious lord vnto hym in weye of right and justice. 1565 Cooper Thesaurus s.v. Abijcio, Abiicere se alteri ad pedes..to prostrate him self at ones feete in way of intreatie. 1568 Grafton Chron. II. 23 King William should geue him yerely in the way of a fee .xij. Markes of Golde. 1606 Shakes. Tr. & Cr. iii. iii. 13, I doe beseech you, as in way of taste To giue me now a little benefit. 1621 J. Chamberlain in Crt. & Times Jas. I (1848) II. 273 He concluded with a wish..for the felicity..of that..happy couple; and, in a way of amen, caused the Bishop of London..to give them a benediction. 1633 Bp. Hall Hard Texts Amos ii. 1 Moab..burnt the very bones of the King of Edoms sonne to ashes, in way of sacrifice to his gods. c 1643 Ld. Herbert Autob. (1886) 176 Which I then bestowed upon some servants of the Prince, in way of retribution for my welcome thither. 1817 Jas. Mill Brit. India II. v. i. 327 In way of compensation, he was allowed a pension.

    b. By means of, by adopting the method of. Now rare. Also † in way of.
    The first quot. may perhaps belong to sense 17.

1607 Shakes. Cor. iii. ii. 137 Ile returne Consull, Or neuer trust to what my Tongue can do I' th way of Flattery further. 1771 Smollett Humph. Cl. To Sir W. Phillips 18 July, He attempted to open her eyes in the way of exhortation, and, finding it produced no effect, had recourse to prayer. 1823 Scott Quentin D. xxx, That in the way of treaty more permanent advantages could be obtained..than by an action which would stain her with a breach of faith and hospitality. 1849 Macaulay Hist. Eng. I. ii. 220 The attack was made, not in the way of storm, but by slow and scientific approaches.

    † c. With a view to; as a means of attaining or performing; so as to effect or produce. Also in way of, in a way of. Obs.

1588 Shakes. L.L.L. iv. ii. 14 A kinde of insinuation, as it were in via, in way of explication. c 1643 Ld. Herbert Autobiog. (1886) 138 He commanded me..not to send any more to Sir John Ayres, nor to receive any message from him, in the way of fighting. 1655 Fuller Ch. Hist. ix. 190 And yet in way of recovering health by changing of Aire, of study for a time in the University,..or of being imployed in publick Affairs, they [licences to clergy for non-residence] cannot be wholy abrogated. 1662 H. More Antid. Atheism Ep. Ded., Which was done in way of Divine Honour to the Wisdom of the Deity. ― Philos. Writ. (1712) Pref. Gen. p. xxi, The ancient Divines and Prophets..witness that the Soul is join'd to this earthly body in a way of punishment. 1760–72 H. Brooke Fool of Qual. (1809) III. 17 Coming closer.., in the way, as it were, of claiming acquaintance with him.

    d. In the course or routine of.

1639 S. Du Verger tr. Camus' Admir. Events 58 Providing that it were done in the way of publicke justice. 1693 Congreve Old Bach. iv. iii, In the way of Trade, we still suspect the smoothest Dealers of the deepest designs. 1765 Foote Commissary i. 3 Not at all given to lying, but like other tradesfolks, in the way of her business. 1863 Kingsley Water-Bab. i. 6 Remembering that he had come in the way of business, and was, as it were, under a flag of truce.

    † e. When one is concerned with. Obs.

1596 Shakes. 1 Hen. IV, iii. i. 139 But in the way of Bargaine,..Ile cauill on the ninth part of a hayre. 1606 ― Tr. & Cr. ii. ii. 189 Hect... Hectors opinion Is this in way of truth: yet nere the lesse [etc.].

    † f. in the way of honesty: under honourable conditions; so far as honour allows. Obs.

1595 Shakes. John i. i. 181 For thou wast got i' th way of honesty. 1598 ― Merry W. ii. ii. 75, I defie all Angels..but in the way of honesty. 1606 ― Ant. & Cl. v. ii. 253. 1639 J. Clarke Parœm. 25 Yours to command in the way of honesty.

    g. to be in the way of: to be likely to do or obtain (something), to have a good chance of (doing or attaining something); formerly also † in way of, † in a way of. to put (a person) in the or a way of, † in way for: to put him in a position to obtain or achieve (something). Also with to and inf. instead of of.
    See also fair a. 14.

1303 R. Brunne Handl. Synne 1212 For ȝyf þou mayst, & wylt noght, þou art yn weye to peyne be broght. 1477 Earl Rivers (Caxton) Dictes 32 The whiche ypocras seeyng the crafte of physike in weye of perdicion because alle his felawes were dede. 1542 Lament. & Piteous Treat. Ep. Ded., I purpose, as sone as my dysease is paste, to put me in waye with all dylygence to se you ryght soone. 1625 Bacon Ess., Friendship (Arb.) 179 A Physician, that..is vnacquainted with your body.., may put you in way for a present Cure, but ouerthroweth your Health in some other kinde. 1677 in 12th Rep. Hist. MSS. Comm. App. v. 36 Lord Mohun is now in a way of recovery. 1689 [see 34 h]. 1719 De Foe Crusoe ii. (Globe) 410 Being very ingenious at such Work, when they were once put in the Way of it. Ibid. 423 Seeing Things..in so fine a way of thriving upon my Island. 1729 Law Serious C. viii. 112 She has educated several poor children,..and put them in a way of an honest employment. 1779 Warner in Jesse Selwyn & Contemp. (1844) IV. 259 You cannot expect a Dyer's letter from me, as your nephew Charles is so much more in the way of having authentic information. 1823 Scott Quentin D. iv, Why did you not tarry at Brussels, then, with the Duke of Burgundy? He would put you in the way to have your bones broken every day. 1827 ― Surg. Dau. Pref., Mr. Croftangry is in the way of doing a foolish thing. 1844 Brougham A. Lunel xii, I soon was put in a way of earning a moderate weekly payment as a translator from the English and Italian. 1847 Mrs. Carlyle Lett. II. 4 Now I am in the way of getting well again. 1860 Dickens Uncomm. Trav. vi, Even then they might sometimes put themselves in the way of being blown into the Regent's Canal. 1883 D. C. Murray Hearts xiv, I am getting on a little in the world, and am in the way to earn a little money. 1885 L'pool Daily Post 7 July 4/4 Diplomatic difficulties, which he hoped were in the way of solution.

    † h. to be in way of marriage: to have a prospect of being married. Also, in (the) way of marriage, in way to marriage, with a view to matrimony. Obs.

1482 Cely Papers (Camden) 102 He askyd me hefe I wher in any whay of maryayge. 1579 Queen Elizabeth in Nicolas Sir C. Hatton (1847) 106 Such Princes as in former time have sought us in way of marriage. 1583 Rich Phylotus (1835) 11 But Phylotus in the ende desired Emelia of her father in the waie of Mariage. 1596 Shakes. Merch. V. ii. i. 42 Neuer to speake to Ladie afterward In way of marriage. 1598 ― Merry W. i. iv. 89 To speake a good word to Mistris Anne Page for my Master in the way of Marriage. 1642 Fuller Holy & Prof. St. iv. xiii. 301 As if their sex in reference to men were not capable of any other kind of familiar friendship but in way to marriage.

    † i. in a way of: in the habit of (doing something). Obs.

c 1704 Buccleuch MSS. (Hist. MSS. Comm.) I. 353 The House of Lords are in a way of having hours very uncertain.

    j. in way of (Naut.): = in wake of s.v. wake n.² 4 b (a).

1950 L. Baker Design Marine Water-Tube Boilers ix. 144 Arboring, a term applied to the removal of tube plate material in way of tube ends to reduce the unsupported length of tube inside the drum. 1957 Shipping World 21 Aug. 153/2 Longitudinal centre-line bulkheads are provided in all the main and tweendeck holds,..and in way of the hatch openings there are steel supports for removable wooden longitudinal bulkheads. 1960 Fishing Gaz. (N.Y.) 15 Mar. 18/1 The propeller shaft has 5/8{pp} thick centrifugally cast liners or wearing sleeves shrunk on in way of the stern bearing and stuffing box.

    36. a. on (or upon) the, or one's, way, on, or in the course of, a journey. to be well on one's way: to have fairly started, or to have made some progress. Also fig., in progress towards completion or accomplishment.
    In OE. on weᵹe: see also away adv.

c 1000 Ags. Gosp. Matt. v. 25 Beo þu onbuᵹende þinum wiðerwinnan hraðe þa hwile þe ðu eart on weᵹe mid him. Ibid. Mark ix. 34 Witodlice hi on weᵹe [Vulg. in via] smeadon hwylc hyra yldost wære. a 1122 O.E. Chron. (Laud MS.) an. 1086, Þæt þa godan men..gan on ðone weᵹ þe us lett to heofonan rice. c 1205 Lay. 1348 Brutus..ferde riht on his wei. c 1300 Cursor M. 8054 Fand þai noþer fra þat sith Man ne beist þat þai wit met, Þat on þair wai þam moght do lett. c 1400 Ywaine & Gaw. 549 He thoght to be wele on hys way Or it war passed the thryd day. c 1420 Anturs of Arth. 315, I mot walke one my wey, þorgh þis wilde wood. 1470–85 Malory Arthur i. i. 36 Ryde on your wey, for I wille not be long behynde. 1523 Surrey in Ellis Orig. Lett. Ser. i. I. 227 Trusting that the gonners be well on the waye hiderwards. 1526 Tindale Acts viii. 39 He went on his waye reioysynge. 1596 Danett tr. Comines (1614) 41 He sent a trumpeter to them, who met with the hostages vpon the way. 1597 Shakes. 2 Hen. IV, ii. i. 73 You should haue bene well on your way to Yorke. 1653 Holcroft Procopius i. x. 16 Overtaking him upon the way. 1697 Dryden Virg. Georg. iv. 576, I will my self conduct thee on thy Way. 1812 Byron Ch. Har. i. xiv, And Cintra's mountain greets them on their way. 1840 Dickens Old C. Shop lxx, Day broke, and found them still upon their way. Ibid. lxxii, The boy had led him to his own dwelling..on their way back. 1860 Tyndall Glac. i. iii. 23 On the following morning I was on my way towards this valley. 1861 Mill Utilit. ii. 35 To inform a traveller respecting the place of his ultimate destination, is not to forbid the use of land-marks and direction-posts on the way. 1885 Law Rep. 15 Q.B.D. 329 The debtor was on his way to the office of the official receiver.

    on the way (this form only): spec. (colloq.) (a) pregnant; (b) (of a child) conceived but not yet born.

(a) 1588 Shakes. L.L.L. v. ii. 679 She is two moneths on her way [sc. with child]. 1865 A. Macdonald Let. Apr. in A. W. Baldwin Macdonald Sisters (1960) vi. 100 Poor Mrs Hughes..is ‘on the way again, blest if she ain't’. 1941 E. Welty Curtain of Green (1943) 39, I bet you another Jax that lady's three months on the way.

(b) [1858: cf. sense 38 b.] 1896 Kipling Day's Work (1898) 271 I'm a married man, an' my fourth's on the ways [sic] now, she says. 1919 V. Woolf Night & Day ix. 121 He has two children, and another on the way. 1961 G. Greene Burnt-Out Case vi. i. 183, I think I have a baby on the way... He doesn't want one. 1983 R. Rendell Speaker of Mandarin v. 69 We've..four simply adorable grandchildren with another on the way.

    b. imp. (be) on your way: go away, get going; also (U.S.), ‘get away’ (get v. 61 b). colloq. (orig. U.S.).

1903 ‘O. Henry’ Trimmed Lamp (1907) 236 Be on your way, Freddie. 1929 Wodehouse Gentleman of Leisure xi. 86 ‘We're going down with him to the country today, Spike, so be ready.’ ‘On your way, boss. What's dat?’ 1974 ‘P. B. Yuill’ Bornless Keeper xii. 113 Toddle off back to Victoria... On your way, amigo.

    c. (I am) on my way: a formula used to express the speaker's intention of hurrying or of making an immediate departure.

1919 in N. I. White Amer. Negro Folk-Songs ii. 124 Lord I'm on my way... Lord I'm on my way. 1948 G. Vidal City & Pillar ii. 35 ‘I'm on my way,’ said Jim. 1971 ‘L. Egan’ Malicious Mischief (1972) ix. 158 ‘Call just in..—they had a prowler over on Jackson... He was armed.’.. ‘I'm on my way!’ snapped Varallo. 1972 J. Philips Vanishing Senator i. iv. 37 ‘Step on it, will you?’ ‘On my way,’ Peter said. 1978 A. Price '44 Vintage xii. 152 If it's all the same to you, m'sieur, we'll be on our way.

    37. out of the way. (See also out-of-the-way adj. phr.) a. Away from the road by which one is travelling; off the track or proper route. Also in fig. context.

1483 Cath. Angl. 405/2 Oute of Way, devius, delirus. 1565 Cooper Thesaurus s.v. Deflecto, Ex itinere ad visendum aliquem deflectere, to turne out of the way to see one. 1610 Shakes. Temp. ii. ii. 7 Nor lead me like a fire-brand, in the darke Out of my way. 1653 W. Ramesey Astrol. Restored 161 Let us then..step a little out of our way, and say somewhat of the Critical days. a 1704 Locke Cond. Und. §34 They are more in danger to go out of the way, who are marching under the Conduct of a Guide, that 'tis an hundred to one will mislead them, than he that has not yet taken a Step, and is likelier to be prevail'd on to enquire after the right Way. 1719 De Foe Crusoe ii. (Globe) 323 It being a Month's Sail out of his Way. 1890 Bickley Surrey Hills III. 214 It was a good mile out of his way, but he felt he must see it again. 1913 J. G. Frazer Psyche's Task iv. (ed. 2) 80 If the two meet on a path they carefully avoid each other; he will step out of the way and she will hurry on.

    b. fig., with the notion of going astray or being off the right path. † (to be) out of the way: in error, mistaken; also, ? missing the point (obs.).

a 1225 Juliana 42 (Royal MS.) Hwen he sent us to wrenchen eni rihtwise ut of þe weie. 1487 Cely Papers (Camden) 159 He sayth yee schall be to far owte of the weye w{supt} owte yee gree & bergeyne togeder. 1530 Palsgr. 715/1 He hath set me out of the waye with his teachynge: par son enseignement il ma desuoyé. 1561 T. Hoby tr. Castiglione's Courtyer iv. (1577) X iij, Perhappes M. Morrello is not altogither out of the waye in saying that beauty is not alwayes good. 1603 Holland Plutarch's Mor. 3 Know he, that he is much deceived, and to say more truely, quite out of the way. 1608 Topsell Serpents 102 They are cleane out of the way, who when they wold vse them for any inward cause, doe cast away their winges and feete. 1694 Atterbury Serm. (1726) I. v. 181 Thus it is in all Matters of Speculation or Practice; He that knows but a little of them..is more out of the way of true Knowledge than if he knew nothing at all. 1728 Gay Begg. Op. i. v, Never was a man more out of the way in an argument than my husband. 1742 Richardson Pamela III. 173 Our Governors cannot always be in the wrong; and he therefore who never gives them a Vote, must probably be as often out of the Way as they.

    c. With of or possessive: Away from the path in which a person or thing is moving; in a position where one does not meet or impede another; at a distance from, clear of, a person's or thing's activities; out of reach of, not in danger from.
    For out of harm's way see harm n. 1 c.

1550 Crowley Epigr. 832 If Abner had knowne what was in Ioabs harte, I do not doubt but he would haue out of his waye sterte. 1650 Jer. Taylor Holy Living ii. §5 Men stand upon their guard against them [sc. inquisitions], as they secure their meat against harpies and cats, laying all their counsels and secrets out of their way. a 1701 Maundrell Journ. Jerus. (1707) 56 The embroylments and factions that were then amongst the Arabs..made us desirous to keep as far as possible out of their way. 1744 M. Bishop Life 28 They sent us a great many Bombs,..there came one swift as Lightning. I had much ado to get out of it's Way. 1858 Trollope Dr. Thorne xvi, The fellow kept out of my way, and I couldn't see him. 1886 Ruskin Præterita I. xii. 423 Always glad to have me out of her way.

    d. (to be) out of (a person's) way: not in his line, not in accordance with his present purpose or taste, outside his scope, beyond his abilities. (Cf. 18 c.) ? Obs.

1562 J. Heywood Prov. & Epigr. (1867) 167 It is out of my way, so it lyghtly may, To all good thyngis thy way is out of the way. 1687 Miége Gt. Fr. Dict. ii. s.v., This is a Thing out of my Way, not proper to me, cela n'est pas mon Affaire. 1707 Freind Peterboro's Cond. Sp. 165 What other Negotiations his Lordship carried on..is out of my way to relate. 1722–7 Boyer Dict. Angl.-Fr. s.v., This is a thing out of my Way (it is not in my Power). 1763 Foote Mayor of G. ii. Wks. 1799 I. 186, I don't much care for your poppers and sharps, because why, they are out of my way. 1780 H. Cowley Belle's Stratagem iii. i, Now, I beg, Mr. Hardy, you won't interfere in this business; it is a little out of your way. 1841 S. Warren Ten Thou. II. vii. 188 I'd give a trifle to know how..such people ever came to be concerned in such a case. 'Tis quite out of their way—which is in the criminal line of business!

    e. to go out of one's way to (do something): to do something which the circumstances do not call for or invite.

1748 Richardson Clarissa III. 321 The culpable freedoms of persons, who, in what they went out of their way to say, must either be guilty of absurdity, meaning nothing; or, meaning something, of rudeness. 1867 Freeman Norm. Conq. (1877) I. App. 729 One hardly sees why any one should go out of his way to invent the tale.

    f. to put (a person) out of his, or the, way: to disturb, inconvenience, trouble; † to disappoint, foil; † to vex, ‘put out’. Often refl., to submit to inconvenience or bother for the sake of others; const. for (another), to (do something).
    † to be out of the way: to be out of temper or vexed (with a person). rare.

1692 Locke Educ. §11 (1693) 10 They should be afraid to put Nature out of her Way in fashioning the Parts [of the body]. 1741 Richardson Pamela I. 57 By what Mr. Jonathan tells me just now, he was quite out of the way with you. 1748 ― Clarissa (1768) VII. 183 If, indeed, I am out of the way a little, I always take care to reward the varlets for patiently bearing my displeasure. 1796 Plain Sense (ed. 2) III. 173 Though, at present, we are put something out of our way, we hope still to find some sacred spot of earth. 1818 Hazlitt Table Talk xxv. (1869) 346 They cannot put themselves out of their way on any account. 1838 Dickens O. Twist xxxi, Anything [to drink] that's handy, miss; don't put yourself out of the way, on our accounts. 1858 Thackeray Virgin. ii, Why should Lady Castlewood put herself out of the way to welcome the young stranger?.. Was a great lady called upon to put herself out of the way for such a youth? 1873 Mrs. Oliphant Innocent III. xi. 177 The maids not caring to put themselves out of the way for such guests.

    g. Away from the resort or society of other persons; away from the place where one would be looked for or wanted; in a position remote or inconvenient to get at.

c 1350 Will. Palerne 1019 Sche trowed trewly..were sche out of þe weye þat william wold fonde for to pleie in þat place þe priue loue game. 1554 Sir J. Mason in Tytler Edw. VI II. 452, I had for answer, that I should not be out of the way in the afternoon, for that he intended to signify unto me his pleasure for answer to my request. 1560 J. Daus tr. Sleidane's Comm. 33 b, Duke Fridericke appointed certein..to conveighe Luther out of the way, in to some secrete place. 1604 Shakes. Oth. iii. i. 40 Ile deuise a meane to draw the Moore Out of the way. 1662 J. Davies tr. Olearius' Voy. Ambass. 84 They seeing..that it was impossible to save the Prince, kept out of the way. 1697 W. Dampier Voy. I. 389 This seemed to us then to be a place out of the way, where we might lye snug for a while. 1739 H. Barnes Pract. Cases C.P. (1772) 320 'Tis plain he kept out of the Way to prevent being arrested. 1745 Pococke Descr. East II. ii. 71 In order to make people resort to a place which was so much out of the way. a 1750 [see 34 e]. 1812 J. H. Vaux Flash Dict., Out of the way, a thief who knows that he is sought after by the traps on some information and consequently goes out of town or otherwise conceals himself is said by his palls to be out of the way for so and so. 1843 Dickens Mart. Chuz. xxxviii, He had speculated too much and was keeping out of the way. 1853 Lytton My Novel i. xii, The Leslies don't mix with the county; and Rood lies very much out of the way. 1873 M. E. Braddon Str. & Pilgr. iii. x. 332 Fancy his coming area-sneaking here while his Ludship's out of the way!

    h. Away from an obstructive position.

1535 Coverdale Isa. lvii. 14 Take vp what ye can out of the waye, that ledeth to my people [1611 take vp the stumbling blocke out of the way of my people]. 1919 K. Pearson in C. Goring Eng. Convict Introd. 12 [Goring] clears out of the way for ever the tangled and luxuriant growths of the Lombrosian School.

    i. to put († bring, † take, † rid, etc.) out of the way: to make away with, kill. Also, † to hang, † shoot out of the way. (to be) out of the way: no longer alive.

c 1535 F. Bygod Treat. conc. Impropriations C j, As moche as lyeth in you, both god and all preachynge, and all other holy thynges ben clene extyncte..and specyally this holy ordynaunce [sc. preaching] put out of the waye. a 1548 Hall Chron., Edw. V 17 b, When..these other lordes & knightes were thus beheaded and ryd out of the waye. Ibid., Hen. VIII 93 He doubted lest he might be brought out of the waie, as other dukes of Albany before had serued the heires of Scotlande. 1560 J. Daus tr. Sleidane's Comm. 138 b, Of Luther and the rest, there is no hope unlesse they be dispatched out of the way [nisi opprimantur]. 1563–83 Foxe A. & M. 2097/1 The said wicked Gardiner..bent all hys deuises, to bring this our happy and deare soueraigne out of the way. 1607 Topsell Four-f. Beasts 187 If this do not cure him [the dog] within seuen daies, then let him be knocked on the head, or hanged out of the way. 1632 Massinger Maid of Hon. iii. iii, I am halfe Hang'd out of the way already. 1679 Trials of Green, etc. for Murder of Sir E. Godfrey 30 He told me there was a Gentleman that was to be put out of the Way; that was the Phrase he used, he did not really say Murther him. 1757 in 10th Rep. Hist. MSS. Comm. App. i. 313 Old Admiral Holbourn, who curst and swore..because Byng was not Shot out of the Way. 1867 Froude Short Stud. (ed. 2) 114 The Earl of Moray..was put out of the Way by an assassin. 1879 M. J. Guest Lect. Hist. Eng. xxxviii. 388 Though he [Richard] had a wife already, he determined to put her out of the way, and marry his own niece Elizabeth sooner than let Henry Tudor win her. 1881 Jowett Thucyd. I. 123 The living have their rivals and detractors, but when a man is out of the way, the honour and good-will which he receives is unalloyed.

    † j. to be out of the way: (of a thing) to be lost or missing. Obs.

1604 Shakes. Oth. iii. iv. 80 Is 't lost? Is 't gon? Speak, is 't out o' th' way? 1687 Miége Gt. Fr. Dict. ii. s.v., To be out of the Way or out of its proper Place, être dispersé, égaré.

    † k. it is out of (my, his, etc.) way: it amounts to or entails a loss of (a specified sum). Obs.

1616 J. Chamberlain in Crt. & Times Jas. I (1848) I. 405 He did the lady a great piece of service to get her out of the Tower, where, if she had been at this time, it might chance been out of her way fifty or three score thousand pounds, at least. 1633 Shirley Gamester iii. (1637) F 3, A curse upon these reeling Dice, that last in and in Was out of my way ten peeces. c 1645 Howell Lett. (1650) I. iii. xxix. 84 It is like to be out of my way 3000 l. 1687 Miége Gt. Fr. Dict. ii. s.v., 'Tis much out of my Way, or to my Loss, cela m'a fait grand tort, ou j'y ai beaucoup perdu. c 1750 J. Nelson Jrnl. (1836) 23 Though it may be ten pounds out of my way to be turned out of my work at this time of the year.

    † l. Beside the mark, amiss; oddly, extraordinarily.

c 1374 Chaucer Anel. & Arc. 318 (Harl. 7333) Have I ought saide oughte of þe waye [Fairf. seyd oght amys I prey]. 1577 F. de L'isle's Legendarie I. vij b, Of him therefore did not a gentleman of Caux speake much out of the waye, when [etc.]. 1782 F. Burney Cecilia v. xii, It's surprizeable to me, Mr. Hobson, you can behave so out of the way!

    m. Predicatively (with the substantive vb. expressed or understood) as adj.: Beside the mark, out of place, inappropriate; odd, bizarre; † not in vogue, unfashionable; † erroneous, incorrect; extraordinary, unusual, remarkable. Cf. out-of-the-way.

1568 Hacket tr. Thevet's New found World xvi. 25 Also it shal not be out of the way [orig. hors de propos], to say that [etc.]. 1604 Shakes. Oth. i. iii. 366 A pox of drowning thy selfe, it is cleane out of the way. 1676 Phillips Purchasers Pattern 106 This rule of reckoning..will not be much out of the way, if you reckon the money by the Tables of rebate. 1681 W. Robertson Phraseol. Gen. 1299/1, I think it not out of the way, non alienum puto. a 1699 Temple Health & Long Life Wks. 1720 I. 273 Mine [sc. my three wishes] were Health, Peace, and fair Weather; which, though out of the way among young Men, yet perhaps might pass well enough among old. 1765 Museum Rust. IV. 99 The writers of them fell entirely in [with] my opinions, odd, unaccountable, and out of the way as they may appear to many. 1873 Mrs. Oliphant Innocent III. xx. 331 If anything out of the way turns up, nobody will remember that such a thing ever happened. 1885 Howells Silas Lapham xxvi. 476 Did you ever know me to do anything out of the way? 1892 Nation (N.Y.) LIV. 232/3 Therefore much that still passes current as opinion about him is pitifully out of the way.

    38. a. under way. Naut. [ad. Du. onderweg (also -wegen) on the way, under way, f. onder under, in the course of, etc. + weg (dat. pl. wegen) way.] Of a vessel: Having begun to move through the water; cf. sense 7 i; often spelt under weigh: see weigh n.² Now freq. as one word: see underway adv.

1743 Bulkeley & Cummins Voy. S. Seas 98 To prevent which, we do agree, that when Under-way they shall not separate. 1751 R. Paltock P. Wilkins viii. (1884) I. 78 We drew up the two boats, and set all hands at work to put the ship under way. 1788 C. Smith Emmeline (1816) IV. 75 It was near ten o'clock before the vessel got under way. 1836 Marryat Midsh. Easy xxiv, He has proposed to me that he shall go on board, and get the brig under way. 1836 W. Irving Astoria xi, Mr. M'Kay urged the captain to clear the ship and get under way. 1863 A. Young Naut. Dict. (ed. 2) 431 Under way, this expression, often used instead of under weigh, seems to be a convenient one for denoting that a ship or boat is making progress through the water, whether by sails or other motive power. 1867 Smyth Sailor's Word-bk. 706 Under way, a ship beginning to move under her canvas after her anchor is started. Some have written this under weigh, but improperly. A ship is under weigh when she has weighed her anchor... As soon as she gathers way she is under way. 1883 Stubbs' Mercantile Circular 8 Nov. 982/2 Of the collisions on or near our shores, most were between steam and sailing vessels when under way. 1885 Law Times' Rep. LIII. 61/2 Trawlers..are bound to show the same lights as a vessel under way.

    b. transf. and fig.

1822 Byron Vis. Judgm. xci, Ere he could get a word Of all his founder'd verses under way. 1837 Carlyle Fr. Rev. i. v. viii, A courier is, this night, getting under way for Necker. 1858 ― Fredk. Gt. x. iii. (1873) III. 240 The little Wife has already brought him one child, a Daughter; and has (as Friedrich notices) another under way. 1856 Chamb. Jrnl. 2 Feb. 80/1, I took the honest waiter home with me in my cab, and under-way we had a good laugh at the spy. a 1874 L. Stephen Hours in Libr. Ser. i. 309 They are restlessly anxious to get their stories well under way.

    VI. Combinations.
    39. Obvious combinations. a. simple attrib., as way-book, way-end, way-pane (pane n.¹ 9), way-signal; b. objective, as way-taking, way-traveller, way-wanderer; way-beguiling, way-stopping adjs.; c. instrumental, as way-bewildered, way-sore, way-spent, way-wearied, way-weary adjs.

1645 Quarles Sol. Recant. ix. 6 Short miles, and *way⁓beguiling Company. 1796 *Way-bewildered [see thought1 7 c].

1895 Westm. Gaz. 11 Mar. 1/2 A complete *way⁓book of the journey from Cherbourg to Nice has been printed.

1869 W. Barnes Early England & Saxon-English 106 When the railway was taken into the hands of more learned men, we had..the terminus instead of the rail⁓end, or *way-end, or outending. 1886 J. Barrowman Sc. Mining Terms 72 Way⁓end, the inner extremity of the wooden railways formerly used in mines.

1805 R. W. Dickson Pract. Agric. II. 923 *Way-Pane.—The strip of land left for cartage along the side of the main [i.e. principal ditch].

1883 Century Mag. Oct. 807/1 Each palm, orange tree, and vineyard left on the old mission sites was a *way signal to the new people.

1871 Palgrave Lyr. Poems 125 *Way-sore feet.

1777 Potter æschylus, Choeph. 355 The *way-spent traveller.

1623 J. Taylor (Water P.) World runs on Wheels Wks. (1630) ii. 238/2 It cleered the Streetes of these *way-stopping Whirli⁓gigges!

1471 Hist. Arrival Edw. IV (Camden) 27 They thowght..to have gotten into theyr companye, by that *way⁓takynge, great nombar of men of Lancashire and Chesshere.

1872 Howells Wedd. Journ. (1892) 101 Loquacious, acquaintance-making *way-travellers.

1795 Southey Soldier's Wife 1 Weary *way-wanderer, languid and sick at heart. 1796 Coleridge Destiny of Nations 149 And minister refreshment to the tired Way-wanderer.

1758 J. G. Cooper Epist. Aristippus iv. 28 Life's *way-wearied travellers.

1916 Blunden Harbingers 60 *Wayweary traveller, with your broad bright eyes. 1926 T. E. Lawrence Seven Pillars (1935) 5 Love, the way-weary, groped to your body.

    40. a. Special comb.: way-baggage U.S., the baggage or luggage of a way-passenger; way-beam, a beam used in the construction of a form of longitudinal railway sleeper; † way-beaten a., exhausted by travel; † way-beater, ? one who frequents the highway for felonious purposes; way-chain, a brake for the wheel of a vehicle; in quot. fig.; † way-door, a door opening on the street; way-fare U.S., a fare charged for travelling between intermediate stations on a railway; cf. way-passenger, -station; † way-fere [fere n.¹], a companion in travel; † way-flax (meaning obscure); † wayfood, provision for a journey; way-freight N. Amer., goods that are picked up or set down at intermediate stopping places on a railway or shipping route; also, a train carrying such freight; way-gang, -go Sc. = waygate²; † waygoer, a traveller by road, a wayfarer; † wayhire local, payment made for the concession of way-leave; † way-lead v. trans., to guide, conduct; † way-leader, one who conducts a traveller; way letter (see quot.; cf. by-letter, by- 4 and by-way letter, by-way 3); † way-mate, a fellow-traveller; way passenger U.S., a passenger picked up or set down at a stage on a coaching route or station on a railway line intermediate between the main stopping-places; way-place U.S., a stopping place on a road or railway; a wayside hostelry or an intermediate station; way-point orig. U.S., a stopping-place on a journey; also, (on an air journey) the computer-checked coordinates of each stage of a long flight; way-port, a port which normally serves as a port of call rather than as an ultimate destination; way-post = guide-post; way-rate north., a rate levied by a local authority for the upkeep of the roads; † way-reeve, † -serjeant, officers appointed to supervise the repair of the roads; † way-shide, ? one of the planks used to form gangways; way-stop chiefly U.S., an intermediate stopping place on a journey; also fig.; way-ticket = way-bill 4; also attrib.; way train U.S., a train which stops at intermediate stations on a railway; a stopping train; † way-walking a., vagrant; † way-went, ? a turn of the road; way-wise a. dial. and U.S., of a horse, familiar with the roads he is required to travel; also fig. of a person, experienced, trained; † way-witere (ME.), one who shows the way, a guide; † waywoodware, timber to be used in the construction of roads.

1847 Webster, *Way-baggage. 1860 in Worcester; and in later Dicts.

1883 Specif. Alnwick & Cornhill Rlwy. 46 Within the troughs [sc. trough-girders] are to be laid..*way⁓beams,..packed between the gussets with stemming pieces.

1742 Jarvis Quixote II. iv. vii. 311 The *way-beaten couple, master and man, sat them down.

a 1586 Sidney Arcadia ii. xxii. §9 This we learned chiefly, by the chiefe of those *way-beaters. 1694 Motteux Rabelais v. xxvi. 122 A sort of People whom they call'd High-way-men, Way-beaters [Fr. Batteurs de pavez], and makers of Inroads in Roads.

1882 Ld. Salisbury in T. Williams Polit. Wit & Humour (1889) 67, I will take the Duke of Wellington's simile. He said it [the House of Lords] was a *way-chain, or, as in these days we should say, a vacuum-brake.

1597 Bp. Hall Sat. iii. iv. 7 But hee must needes his Posts with blood embrew, And on his *way-doore fixe the horned head.

1863 Dicey Federal St. I. 55 You can go from New York to Chicago..for four pounds; but the *way-fares are three-halfpence a mile.

c 1450 Pecock Donet (1921) 89 Jesus..oure *weifere, oure techer.

c 1610 Cry in Sturbridge Fair in Gutch Coll. Cur. II. 16 Also that no man shall regrate of the aforesaid things, as..*Way-flax,..Rosin, Yarn, Pitch, Tar-Cloth, or other thing of Grocery ware.

1382 Wyclif Deut. xv. 14 But thow shalt ȝyue *weyfode [Vulg. viaticum] of the flockis.

1833 Niles' Reg. XLIV. 260/2 The hatch..was open to get out a lot of *way-freight. 1875 ‘Mark Twain’ in Atlantic Monthly Aug. 191 No way-freights and no way-passengers were allowed, for the racers would stop only at the largest towns. 1898 H. E. Hamblen Gen. Manager's Story 37 The way freight..had crossed over to load some freight. 1977 Islander (Victoria, B.C.) 8 May 2/3 The discharging of cargo and the loading of way-freight.

1744 in Kames Decis. Crt. Sess. 1730–52 (1799) 81 To cause the water restagnate upon the *way-gang of the pursuer's mill.

1700 Sir A. Balfour Lett. 130 They use to stop the *way-goe of the Water, sometimes in the Summer, and lett the Place overflow with Water.

1382 Wyclif Gen. xxxvii. 25 And sittynge for to eet breed, thei seen Ysmaelites *weiegoers [Vulg. viatores] to comen fro Galaad. 1482 Caxton Trevisa's Higden v. xii. 145 b, Also for refresshyng of weygoers there as clere welles were by hye weyes, the same kyng made arere postes and to honge theron shelles or cuppes of bras. 1577–87 Holinshed Chron. I. Hist. Eng. 181/1 Such tolles and tallages as were demanded of way-goers at bridges.

1747–8 in N. Riding Record Soc. (1890) VIII. 267 To save the country the several rates pay'd by the Riding for *wayhires..when the said road is overflowed with water.

1470–85 Malory Arthur vii. xiii. 232 Whether ward ar ye *way ledyng this knyghte.

a 1586 Sidney Arcadia iii. xiv. §6 Let the Gods dispose of me as shall please them; but sure it shall be no such way, nor *way-leader, by which I will come to libertie. 1598 Barret Theor. Warres iv. i. 99 They are to procure faithful and trusty guides, and skilful way leaders.

1773 H. Finlay Jrnl. 11 Nov. (1867) 38 *Way letters he makes his own perquisite. 1851 E. Bowen U.S. Post-Office Guide 47 On the letters brought by a mail carrier to be mailed, called way-letters, one cent. is to be charged in addition to the usual postage. 1893 H. Joyce Hist. Post Office x. 147 For purposes of illustration..A bye or way letter would be a letter passing between any two towns on the Bath road and stopping short of London.

1638 R. Brathwait Barnabees Jrnl. (1818) 183 Thee, pleasing *way-mates titled have their patron.

1799 Mass. Mercury 12 Feb. (Thornton) The fare is 4d per mile for *way passengers. 1834 in M{supc}Clure Early Life Abr. Lincoln (1886) 174 Fare through..nine dollars: way passengers six and a fourth cents per mile. 1835 C. F. Hoffman Winter in West I. 102 At Huron, where the boat put in to land way-passengers.

1849 H. Melville Jrnl. Visit to London (1948) 67 In a fit of the nightmare was going to stop at a *way-place, taking it for the place of my destination. 1883 ‘Mark Twain’ Life on Mississippi lii. 512 She got out of the cars at a way-place.

1880 Harper's Mag. Dec. 53 The Ohio is plied by a line of Cincinnati and Pittsburgh packets, and by smaller craft earning a precarious existence between ‘*way’ points. 1899 J. London Let. 12 Sept. (1966) 54 And to-morrow I start out on that postponed trip of mine to Stanford University and Mt. Hamilton, to say nothing of way points. 1902 O. Wister Virginian xxiv. 276 The letter..had gone by private hand at the outset, taken the stage-coach at a way point [etc.]. 1971 Flying Apr. 29/1 (Advt.), Computer and waypoint selector lets you fly direct to a destination hundreds of miles away..forget about airways dog-legs. 1983 Times 6 Sept. 26/2 They plot course by typing..a series of ‘way-points’ into the computer. Such way-points occur every four hundred miles, so even if one were wrong, the next should put aircraft back on course. 1984 Sunday Times 20 May 34/2 The co-ordinates of the different ‘waypoints’, or intermediate stages along the flight..were checked and found correct.

1897 ‘Mark Twain’ Following Equator xxxii. 303 A good many of us got ashore at the first *way-port to seek another ship. 1901 Daily Colonist (Victoria, B.C.) 11 Oct. 3/2 The steamer Princess Louise..has been tied up for repairs, and there will be no steamer leaving for the canneries and way ports of the north until Monday at least. 1927 Blackw. Mag. Mar. 330/2 ‘A way-port!’ he sighed, after ordering coffee. ‘It's turned out to be a terminus for a good many fellows like me.’

1773 J. Berridge Wks. (1864) 184 They were like *wayposts, which shew a road but cannot help a cripple forwards. a 1845 Barham Ingol. Leg. Ser. iii. Blasph. Warn. 338 And you came to a place where three cross-roads divide, Without any way-post, stuck up by the side Of the road to direct you and act as a guide.

1813 Examiner 8 Feb. 91/2, I was..appointed Way-warden for the parish; and was dragged from my business to collect the *way-rate.

1788 W. H. Marshall Yorks. I. 189 Every township ought to employ a roadman or working-*way-reave..for the same excellent purpose [of road-mending].

1334 Rolls of Parlt. II. 84/2 En eyde de lour ferme de *Wey⁓serjauntz qe soleyent estre en foreyn boys pur le Cheminage, laquele Cheminage & Weywodewares sount ore defete par reson de la Porale.

1535 Act 27 Hen. VIII c. 18 Conveyeng awaye of *wayshydes shores pyles..from the said bankes and walles [of the Thames].

1961 Webster, *Way-stop. 1969 Islander (Victoria, B.C.) 17 Aug. 12/3 She [sc. a steamboat] makes various way-stops on each trip and as Skipper McMinn says—‘We stop for anyone who jumps up and down on the shore and gives us a holler.’ 1981 Southern Horticulture (N.Z.) Spring 13 A town that's now making it. Martinborough was once just a way stop on the road to Pirinoa. 1983 C. G. Hart Rich die Young iv. 45 Pat was using the Academy as a way-stop while he tried to break into the movies.

1893 Times 28 Sept. 3/5, I agree with your correspondent..that the *way-ticket system is a good one. 1906 Westm. Gaz. 27 Feb. 4/1 Men really in search of work would be given ‘way tickets’ for definite routes... Holders would be entitled to lodging, supper, and breakfast at the casual ward.

1873 ‘Mark Twain’ & Warner Gilded Age xxix. 269 Next morning..he descended, sleepy and sore, from a *way-train. 1920 S. Lewis Main Street 22 The hordes of the way-trains were not altogether new to Carol.

1534 More Comf. agst. Trib. iii. xix. (1553) R v, Whether euery *waye walking beggre be by this reason out of prieson or no, we shall considre.

c 1425 Macro Plays, Cast. Persev. 158 Worthy wytis, in al þis werd wyde, Be wylde wode wonys, & euery *weye-went.

1775 Ash, *Waywise, expert in choosing the road. 1840 Haliburton Clockm. Ser. iii. ix. 122 If they [sc. women as wives] are too old they are apt to be headstrong from havin' had their head so long; and, if they are too young, they are hardly way-wise enough to be pleasant. 1901 Munsey's Mag. XXV. 740/2 When a colt can be safely driven around the home grounds, he is considered ‘farm broke,’ or way wise. 1918 F. Hackett Ireland xi. 309 Flung into the medley of American life, he was compelled..to become way-wise in the factory, [etc.].

c 1205 Lay. 12860 Þa cleopeden þe æorl Costantin & bad þa *wæi-witere [c 1275 wei-wittie] for-ærnen þa wateres. 1334 *Weywodewares [see wayserjeant above].

    b. In the names of plants found growing by the wayside and in stony places, as † way-barley, -bennet, -bent, Hordeum murinum; † way-cress = sciatica cress; way-grass (see quot. 1887); way-thistle, Carduus arvensis. Also waybread, waywort.

1597 Gerarde Herbal i. xlvi. 67 This kinde of wilde Barly..is called..in English Wall Barly, *Way Barly, or after old English writers, Way Bennet.

1578 Lyte Dodoens iv. xlv. 504 Wall Barley, or *Way Bennet. 1665 Lovell Herball (ed. 2) 464. 1763 [see wall barley s.v. wall n.1 25 c].

1538 Turner Libellus, Phenix,..*waybent. 1548 ― Names of Herbes (1881) 43 Phenix Dioscoridis semeth to be the herbe which is called in Cambrigshire Way bent.

1562 ― Herbal ii. 20 b, [Iberis] may be called in Englishe *way-cresses.

1565 Cooper Thesaurus, Calligonon... *Waygrasse: knotgrasse. 1887 Kentish Gloss., Way-grass, a weed; knot-grass. Polygonum aviculare.

1597 Gerarde Herbal ii. cccclxxiv. 1012 The *way Thistles grow euery where by high way sides and common paths, in great plenty. 1796 W. Pitt Agric. Stafford 78 The common, cursed, or way thistle.

    
    

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     ▸ way to go int. chiefly N. Amer. expressing congratulation or approval; ‘well done’.

1950 Cullman (Alabama) Banner 11 May 4/4 These boys have won four consecutive games this season. Way to go boys! 1974 E. Bowen Henry & Other Heroes v. 111, I—along with the rest of the team—was cheered, pummeled, and hosannaed with cries of ‘Way to go!’ ‘Terrific!’ ‘You guys done it!’ 2003‘S. Pax’ Weblog Diary 5 Feb. in Baghdad Blog 89 Way to go, Uncle Sam! This is going to make one hell of a James Bond movie.

▪ II. † way, n.² Obs. rare.
    [? var. of wey.]
    A certain quantity of glass.

1545 Rates of Custom Ho. C iij, Glasses Reinish the way or web containing lx. bunches. 1550–1600 Customs Duties MS. Addit. 25097 lf. 7 b, Glasse the waye or wabe. 1656 Act Commw. c. 20 Rates (1658) 468 Glass for Windows called..Rhenish, the Way or Web.

▪ III. † way, v. Obs.
    [f. way n.¹]
    1. intr. To go, journey, proceed.

1596 Spenser F.Q. iv. ii. 12 On a time as they together way'd, He made him open chalenge, and thus boldly sayd. 1708 Yorkshire Racers 10 They..Way'd to the course, and gallop'd true and well.

    2. trans. (See quot. 1706.) Also erron. weigh, waigh.

1639 T. de Grey Compl. Horsem. i. v. (1656) 43 Untill such time as he hath been..made gentle,..content to be shod, to be Back'd, Broken, Ridden, Wayed, Mouthed. a 1652 A. Wilson in Peck Desid. Curiosa (1735) II. xii. 25 My spotted Nag..being younge & not well waigh'd, run away with mee. a 1654 Selden Table-T. (Arb.) 39 He that hath a Scrupulous Conscience, is like a Horse that is not well weigh'd, he starts at every Bird that flies out of the Hedge. 1706 Phillips (ed. Kersey), To Way a Horse, is to teach him to travel in the Ways. 1708 Lond. Gaz. No. 4490/4 Lost.., a young black Gelding, comes 4, not thorough weigh'd.

    3. To set (a waggon) on the made way or track on which it runs.

1763 in London Mag. (1764) 145/2 When a waggon happens to be off the waggon-way, if laden, it will take two or three horses to way the waggon again.

    † 4. intr. To construct a way. In quot. indirect passive. Obs.

1640 Somner Antiq. Canterb. 195 It was a Free-Schoole for the City..anciently wayed unto, and having a passage to it from some part of Burgate-street.

    Hence † wayed ppl. a.

? 1640 Suckling Let. Fragm. Aur. (1658) 77 A well-wayed horse will safely convey thee to thy journeys end. 1727 Bailey vol. II, Way'd Horse [with Horsemen] is one who is already backed, suppled, and broken, and shews a Disposition to the Manage.

▪ IV. way, adv.
    (weɪ)
    [Aphetic f. away. Cf. G. weg similarly used.]
    1. = away adv. in various senses. † do way: see do v. 53. Now only Sc., north., and U.S.

c 1205 Lay. 15933 Let alæten þis wæter & wei weorpen [c 1275 awey werpe]. a 1300–1578 Do way [see do v. 53]. 1460 Paston Lett. I. 525 As for tythyngs here, the Kyng is way at Eltham. 1533 More 2nd Pt. Confut. Tindale iv. Wks. 593/2 Which great occasyons Godde suffred to fal vpon him and carye hym waye. [Tindale's words are: to carye him clene oute of the waye.] 1818 Scott Hrt. Midl. xxvi, Gae wa', gae wa'. 1871 W. Alexander Johnny Gibb iii, Gae 'wa', ye haveril. 1908 Collier's Mag. Oct., ‘Travelling for the Presidency’ (Thornton s.v. Lunch-counter) Mr. Bryan has, during the past twelve years, eaten or otherwise made way with over 1,700 meals at railroad lunch-counters.

    2. esp. At or to a (great) distance, far. a. with preps.

1849 W. S. Mayo Kaloolah v. (1850) 44 You see it was way towards Tupper's Lake. 1888 E. Custer Tenting on Plains viii. (1893) 151 He sat 'way under the mantel, to let the tobacco-smoke go up the chimney. 1891 Anthony's Photogr. Bull. IV. 29, I would have sold at a very low price, way below cost.

1927 Baroness Orczy Sir Percy hits Back v. 35 The three men had become mere specks, 'way down the road.

1959 Times Lit. Suppl. 16 Oct. 589/3 You are feet deep in snow and the temperature is way below zero. 1972 Guardian 17 Nov. 1/6 The census figures confirm..that unemployment is way above the official figure. 1979 R. Perry Bishop's Pawn v. 76 You're way off course... It's back on Unter den Linden.

    b. With advs., as down, over, through. Now only north. and U.S. For way back, in, off, out, up see main entries below.

1908 S. E. White Riverman ix, Until you got sick of it *way through.

1851 E. S. Wortley Trav. in U.S. xxiii. 138 The trading and wealthy cities of far off Alabama and Louisiana, ‘way down south’. 1854 Seba Smith (title) Way down East. 1866 Atlantic Monthly May 640 Nor these ain't metters thet with pol'tics swings, But goes 'way down amongst the roots o' things.

1850 L. H. Garrard Wah-to-Yah xvii. 222 Calyforny! way over yonder!

    c. fig. Much, far. U.S.

1941 L. I. Wilder Little Town on Prairie v. 34 ‘I wonder how much it costs,’ said Ma. ‘'Way too much for ordinary folks,’ said Pa. 1957 New Yorker 2 Nov. 105/2 Go by plane, train or ship. Arrive way sooner—relaxed! 1977 Rolling Stone 24 Mar., He was a country & western singer and he drank way too much.

    3. Comb. (Chiefly Sc.) a. with a pa. pple. or verb, as way-gone; † way-put v. Sc., to put away: (a) to effect the escape of (a fugitive from justice); (b) = put v. 39 d.

1831 Sutherland Farm Rep. 81 in Libr. Usef. Knowl., Husb. III, They are sorted into their wedder herdings to replace the *waygone lot of the last year's ewe hogs.

1538 in Pitcairn Crim. Trials (Bannatyne Club) I. *205 [John Tuedy, in Lyntoun, convicted of art and part of the treasonable assistance given to James Douglas..: And for art and part of] *way⁓putting [him]. 1540 Extracts Aberd. Reg. (1844) I. 170 That nane of thaim way put nor dispone vpon the necessaris requirit to the said schip as ane schip of weir.

    b. with vbl. ns. (or other nouns of action), chiefly Sc., as waycoming, way-fleeing, way-passing, way-sending, way-sliding; way-ganging = way-going; † wei-sith, departure, death; way-taking, the action or an act of taking (something) away, removal. Also way-going.

1651 Sir A. Johnston (Ld. Wariston) Diary (S.T.S.) II. 95 Heard of the Scots airmy coming to Dumfermling after hir *waycoming.

1513 Douglas æneis iv. vi. 93 Tofoir thi *wayfleing, Had I ane child consavit of thi ofspring.

1456 Sir G. Haye Law Arms (S.T.S.) 176 Gif a man..assuris ane othir frely to cum, and spekis nocht of his *way ganging. a 1605 R. Bannatyne's Jrnl. (1806) 490 It was ewin, at the way ganging of the day light. 1898 E. W. Hamilton Mawkin of Flow xi. 125 I'd be laith to get an ill name at the very outset of our way-ganging.

1479 Acta Dom. Concil. (1839) 45/1 Þat þe persouns þ{supt} past fra þe eleccioun of þe said Alexander be summond..to ansuer..for þair *way passing. a 1578 Lindesay (Pitscottie) Chron. Scot. (S.T.S.) II. 11 [They] brunt the toun at thair way passing.

a 1572 Knox Hist. Ref. Wks. 1846 I. 420 Sche farther willit, to offer the *way-sending of the men of weir.

c 1205 Lay. 25846 [She] weop for hire *wei-sið. Ibid. 28199 Scullen alle mine feond wæi-sið makeȝe.

1818 Scott Hrt. Midl. xviii, Avoiding right-hand snares and extremes, and left-hand *way-slidings.

1479 Acta Audit. (1839) 93/1 Befor þe lordis comperit Dauid Wemys summond..anent þe *wataking of thre oxin furth of þe landis of myrecarny. a 1572 Knox Hist. Ref. Wks. 1846 I. 56 And so did Jesus Christ, the onlye trew Light, schyne unto many, for the way-tackin of one. 1625 in Spalding Club Misc. V. 218 The gryt trubill and discord betuin the laird and his tenantis anent the waytaking of doris at thair remowing.

    
    

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     Add: [2.] d. slang. Extremely, very; really. Cf. *well adv. 16 b.

1987 Freestylin' Aug. 102/1 The combination of riding and product tossing made the whole day way fun, and made the small turnout a forgotten fact. 1988 Freestyle BMX June 25/2 The guys behind the bar were way cool, flowing free beers to the visiting skaters. 1990 New Musical Express 21 July 14/6 When we recorded it originally I doubled up the drums and it sounded way Gary Glitter, way Clash.

▪ V. way, int.
    (weɪ)
    Also whay.
    [Cf. wo int.]
    A call to a horse to stop.

1836 Dickens Sk. Boz, Tuggs's at Ramsgate, Away went the donkey..‘Way-way! Wo-o-o-o-!’ cried Mr. Cymon Tuggs. 1846 ― Cricket on Hearth ii, ‘Way!’ This monosyllable was addressed to the Horse, who didn't mind it at all. ‘Oh do Way, John!’ said Mrs. Peerybingle. ‘Please!’ 1856 C. M. Yonge Daisy Chain i. xv, Whay! Stop. There's an old woman in here.

▪ VI. way
    obs. form of weigh v., wey, whey, woe.