Definify.com

Webster 1913 Edition

Way

Way

,
adv.
[Aphetic form of
away
.]
Away.
[Obs. or Archaic]
Chaucer.
To do way
,
to take away; to remove.
[Obs.]
“Do way your hands.”
Chaucer.
–
To make way with
,
to make away with. See under
Away
.
[Archaic]

Way

,
Noun.
[OE.
wey
,
way
, AS.
weg
; akin to OS., D., OHG., & G.
weg
, Icel.
vegr
, Sw.
väg
, Dan.
vei
, Goth.
wigs
, L.
via
, and AS.
wegan
to move, L.
vehere
to carry, Skr.
vah
. √136. Cf.
Convex
,
Inveigh
,
Vehicle
,
Vex
,
Via
,
Voyage
,
Wag
,
Wagon
,
Wee
,
Weigh
.]
1.
That by, upon, or along, which one passes or processes; opportunity or room to pass; place of passing; passage; road, street, track, or path of any kind;
as, they built a
way
to the mine
.
“To find the way to heaven.”
Shak.
I shall him seek by
way
and eke by street.
Chaucer.
The
way
seems difficult, and steep to scale.
Milton.
The season and
ways
were very improper for his majesty’s forces to march so great a distance.
Evelyn.
2.
Length of space; distance; interval;
as, a great
way
; a long
way
.
And whenever the
way
seemed long,
Or his heart began to fail.
Longfellow.
3.
A moving; passage; procession; journey.
I prythee, now, lead the
way
.
Shakespeare
4.
Course or direction of motion or process; tendency of action; advance.
If that
way
be your walk, you have not far.
Milton.
And let eternal justice take the
way
.
Dryden.
5.
The means by which anything is reached, or anything is accomplished; scheme; device; plan.
My best
way
is to creep under his gaberdine.
Shakespeare
By noble
ways
we conquest will prepare.
Dryden.
What impious
ways
my wishes took!
Prior.
6.
Manner; method; mode; fashion; style;
as, the
way
of expressing one's ideas
.
7.
Regular course; habitual method of life or action; plan of conduct; mode of dealing.
“Having lost the way of nobleness.”
Sir. P. Sidney.
Her
ways
are
ways
of pleasantness, and all her paths are peace.
Prov. iii. 17.
When men lived in a grander
way
.
Longfellow.
8.
Sphere or scope of observation.
Jer. Taylor.
The public ministers that fell in my
way
.
Sir W. Temple.
9.
Determined course; resolved mode of action or conduct;
as, to have one's
way
.
10.
(Naut.)
(a)
Progress;
as, a ship has
way
.
(b)
pl.
The timbers on which a ship is launched.
11.
pl.
(Mach.)
The longitudinal guides, or guiding surfaces, on the bed of a planer, lathe, or the like, along which a table or carriage moves.
12.
(Law)
Right of way. See below.
By the way
,
in passing; apropos; aside; apart from, though connected with, the main object or subject of discourse.
–
By way of
,
for the purpose of; as being; in character of.
–
Covert way
.
(Fort.)
See
Covered way
, under
Covered
.
–
In the family way
.
See under
Family
.
–
In the way
,
so as to meet, fall in with, obstruct, hinder, etc.
–
In the way with
,
traveling or going with; meeting or being with; in the presence of.
–
Milky way
.
(Astron.)
See
Galaxy
, 1.
–
No way
,
No ways
.
See
Noway
,
Noways
, in the Vocabulary.
–
On the way
,
traveling or going; hence, in process; advancing toward completion;
as,
on the way
to this country;
on the way
to success
.
–
Out of the way
.
See under
Out
.
–
Right of way
(Law)
,
a right of private passage over another's ground. It may arise either by grant or prescription. It may be attached to a house, entry, gate, well, or city lot, as well as to a country farm.
Kent.
–
To be under way
, or
To have way
(Naut.)
,
to be in motion, as when a ship begins to move.
–
To give way
.
See under
Give
.
–
To go one's way
, or
To come one's way
,
to go or come; to depart or come along.
Shak.
–
To go one's way
to proceed in a manner favorable to one; – of events.
–
To come one's way
to come into one's possession (of objects) or to become available, as an opportunity;
as, good things will
come your way
.
–
To go the way of all the earth
or
to go the way of all flesh
to die.
–
To make one's way
,
to advance in life by one's personal efforts.
–
To make way
.
See under
Make
,
Verb.
T.
–
Ways and means
.
(a)
Methods; resources; facilities.
(b)
(Legislation)
Means for raising money; resources for revenue.
–
Way leave
,
permission to cross, or a right of way across, land; also, rent paid for such right.
[Eng]
–
Way of the cross
(Eccl.)
,
the course taken in visiting in rotation the stations of the cross. See
Station
,
Noun.
, 7
(c)
.
–
Way of the rounds
(Fort.)
,
a space left for the passage of the rounds between a rampart and the wall of a fortified town.
–
Way pane
,
a pane for cartage in irrigated land. See
Pane
,
Noun.
, 4.
[Prov. Eng.]
–
Way passenger
,
a passenger taken up, or set down, at some intermediate place between the principal stations on a line of travel.
–
Ways of God
,
his providential government, or his works.
–
Way station
,
an intermediate station between principal stations on a line of travel, especially on a railroad.
–
Way train
,
a train which stops at the intermediate, or way, stations; an accommodation train.
–
Way warden
,
the surveyor of a road.
Syn. – Street; highway; road.
–
Way
,
Street
,
Highway
,
Road
. Way is generic, denoting any line for passage or conveyance; a highway is literally one raised for the sake of dryness and convenience in traveling; a road is, strictly, a way for horses and carriages; a street is, etymologically, a paved way, as early made in towns and cities; and, hence, the word is distinctively applied to roads or highways in compact settlements.
All keep the broad
highway
, and take delight
With many rather for to go astray.
Spenser.
There is but one
road
by which to climb up.
Addison.
When night
Darkens the
streets
, then wander forth the sons
Of Belial, flown with insolence and wine.
Milton.

Way

,
Verb.
T.
To go or travel to; to go in, as a way or path.
[Obs.]
“In land not wayed.”
Wyclif.

Way

,
Verb.
I.
To move; to progress; to go.
[R.]
On a time as they together
wayed
.
Spenser.

Webster 1828 Edition

Way

WAY

,
Noun.
[G., L.]
1.
Literally, a passing; hence, a passage; the place of passing; hence, a road of any kind; a highway; a private road; a lane; a street; any place for the passing of men; cattle or other animals; a word of very comprehensive signification.
2.
Length of space; as a great way; a little way.
3.
Course; direction of motion or travel. What way did he take? Which way shall I go? Keep in the way of truth and knowledge.
Mark what way I make.
4.
Passage; room for passing. Make way for the jury.
5.
Course, or regular course.
And let eternal justice take the way.
6.
Tendency to any meaning or act.
There is nothing in the words that sounds that way.
7.
Sphere of observation.
The general officers and the public ministers that fell in my way--
8.
Manner of doing any thing; method; means of doing. Seek the best way of learning, and pursue it.
By noble ways we conquest will prepare.
9.
Method; scheme of management.
What impious ways my wishes took.
10.
Manner of thinking or behavior; particular turn of opinion; determination or humor. Let him have his way, when that will not injure him, or any other person. But multitudes of children are ruined by being permitted to have their way.
11.
Manner; mode. In no way does this matter belong to me. We admire a persons way of expressing his ideas.
12.
Method; manner of practice. Find, if you can, the easiest way to live.
Having lost the way of nobleness.
13.
Method or plan of life and conduct. Instruct your children in the right way.
Her ways are ways of pleasantness, and all her paths are peace. Proverbs 3.
All flesh had corrupted his way. Genesis 6.
14.
Course; process of things, good or bad. Things are in a prosperous way.
15.
Right method to act or know.
We are quite out of the way.
16.
General scheme of acting.
Men who go out of the way to hint free things, must be guilty of absurdity or rudeness.
17.
Ways, plu. the timbers on which a ship is launched.
To make way, to give room for passing; or to make a vacancy.
To give way, to recede; to make room; or to yield; to concede the place or opinion to another.
To make ones way, to advance in life by efforts; to advance successfully.
By the way, en passant, as we proceed; a phrase introducing something in discourse, not immediately connected with the subject.
To go ones way, or to come ones way, to go or come along.
To go the way of all the earth, to die.
In the way, a phrase noting obstruction. What is there in the way of your success?
In Scripture, the ways of God, are his providential government, or his works. Romans 11. Job 11.
Way and ways are used in certain phrases, in the sense of wise. He is no ways a match for his antagonist.
Tis no way the interest even of the priesthood.
To be under way, in seamens language, to be in motion, as when a ship begins to move. So a ship is said to have head-way, when she moves forward in her course, and stern-way, when she is driven astern. She is said also to gather way, or to lose way. Lee-way is a movement of a ship aside of her course, or to the leeward.
Milky way, in astronomy, the galaxy; a broad luminous belt or space in the heavens, supposed to be occasioned by the blended light of an immense number of stars. By means of a telescope of uncommon magnifying powers, Dr. Herschel has been able to ascertain this fact, by distinguishing the stars.
Covert way, in fortification, a passage covered from the enemys fire.
Ways and means, in legislation, means for raising money; resources for revenue.
Way-going crop, among farmers, is the crop which is taken from the ground the year the tenant leaves the farm. [England.]

Definition 2024

Way

Way

See also: way, wɑy, 'way, and -way

English

Proper noun

Way

  1. (Christianity, with the definite article) Christianity.
    • 1946, The Bible, Revised Standard Version, Acts 9:1–2
      But Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest and asked him for letters to the synagogues at Damascus, so that if he found any belonging to the Way, men or women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem.
  2. (Chinese philosophy, with the definite article) Synonym of Tao: the way of nature and/or the ideal way in which to live one's life.
  3. (Sussex, with the definite article) Short for South Downs Way.
    We're walking along the Way now.

Etymology 2

Proper noun

Way

  1. A surname​.
Derived terms

Anagrams

way

way

See also: Way, wɑy, 'way, and -way

English

Alternative forms

Noun

way ‎(plural ways)

  1. (heading) To do with a place or places.
    1. A road, a direction, a (physical or conceptual) path from one place to another.
      Do you know the way to the airport?  Come this way and I'll show you a shortcut.  It's a long way from here.‎
      • John Milton (1608-1674)
        The way seems difficult, and steep to scale.
      • John Evelyn (1620-1706)
        The season and ways were very improper for his majesty's forces to march so great a distance.
      • 1898, Winston Churchill, chapter 4, in The Celebrity:
        Judge Short had gone to town, and Farrar was off for a three days' cruise up the lake. I was bitterly regretting I had not gone with him when the distant notes of a coach horn reached my ear, and I descried a four-in-hand winding its way up the inn road from the direction of Mohair.
      • 1913, Joseph C. Lincoln, chapter 4, in Mr. Pratt's Patients:
        I was on my way to the door, but all at once, through the fog in my head, I began to sight one reef that I hadn't paid any attention to afore.
      • 2013 June 22, “Snakes and ladders”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8841, page 76:
        Risk is everywhere. […] For each one there is a frighteningly precise measurement of just how likely it is to jump from the shadows and get you. “The Norm Chronicles” […] aims to help data-phobes find their way through this blizzard of risks.
    2. A means to enter or leave a place.
      We got into the cinema through the back way.‎
      • 1963, Margery Allingham, chapter 14, in The China Governess:
        Just under the ceiling there were three lunette windows, heavily barred and blacked out in the normal way by centuries of grime. Their bases were on a level with the pavement outside, a narrow way which was several feet lower than the road behind the house.
    3. A roughly-defined geographical area.
      If you're ever 'round this way, come over and visit me.‎
  2. A method or manner of doing something; a mannerism.
    You're going about it the wrong way.  He's known for his quirky ways.  I don't like the way she looks at me.‎
    • 1913, Robert Barr, chapter 4, in Lord Stranleigh Abroad:
      “[…] That woman is stark mad, Lord Stranleigh. […] If she had her way, she’d ruin the company inside a year with her hare-brained schemes ; love of the people, and that sort of guff.”
    • 1918, W. B. Maxwell, chapter 2, in The Mirror and the Lamp:
      She was a fat, round little woman, richly apparelled in velvet and lace, […]; and the way she laughed, cackling like a hen, the way she talked to the waiters and the maid, […]—all these unexpected phenomena impelled one to hysterical mirth, and made one class her with such immortally ludicrous types as Ally Sloper, the Widow Twankey, or Miss Moucher.
    • 1959, Georgette Heyer, chapter 1, in The Unknown Ajax:
      […] his lordship was out of humour. That was the way Chollacombe described as knaggy an old gager as ever Charles had had the ill-fortune to serve. Stiff-rumped, that's what he was, always rubbing the rust, or riding grub, like he had been for months past.
    • 2013 June 1, “A better waterworks”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8838, page 5 (Technology Quarterly):
      An artificial kidney these days still means a refrigerator-sized dialysis machine. Such devices mimic the way real kidneys cleanse blood and eject impurities and surplus water as urine.
  3. A state or condition
    When I returned home, I found my house and belongings in a most terrible way.
  4. (heading) Personal interaction.
    1. Possibility (usually in the phrases 'any way' and 'no way').
      There's no way I'm going to clean up after you.‎
    2. Determined course; resolved mode of action or conduct.
      My little sister always whines until she gets her way.‎
  5. (paganism) A tradition within the modern pagan faith of Heathenry, dedication to a specific deity or craft, Way of wyrd, Way of runes, Way of Thor etc.
  6. (nautical) Speed, progress, momentum.
    • 1977, Richard O'Kane, Clear the Bridge: The War Patrols of the U.S.S. Tang, Ballantine Books (2003), p.343:
      Ten minutes into the run Tang slowed, Welch calling out her speed as she lost way.
  7. A degree, an amount, a sense.
    In a large way, crocodiles and alligators are similar.‎
    • 1913, Joseph C. Lincoln, chapter 8, in Mr. Pratt's Patients:
      That concertina was a wonder in its way. The handles that was on it first was wore out long ago, and he'd made new ones of braided rope yarn. And the bellows was patched in more places than a cranberry picker's overalls.
  8. (US, As the head of an interjectory clause) Acknowledges that a task has been done well, chiefly in expressions of sarcastic congratulation.
    Way to ruin the moment, guys.‎
    • 2001, Joshua Nedelman, The Garden of Eastern, page 36:
      Jimmy leaned forward holding his ear, the personification of naïveté, looking as young as a baby with his oh-so-innocent face. “Oh, way to get us busted, Jimmy,” Curt hissed under his breath.
    • 2009, Linda Winfree, Fall in Me, page 165:
      Oh, way to start a rumor, Hope. Angel glared the silent statement at her sister.
    • 2012, Nancy Manther, A Charmed Life:
      "Oh, way to care about how I feel." His voice took on an exaggerated “Valley Girl” tone.
  9. (plural only) The timbers of shipyard stocks that slope into the water and along which a ship or large boat is launched.
    • 1912, Fredrick A. Talbot, Steamship Conquest of the World, page 36:
      By the time the Mauretania was ready for launching a total weight of 16,800 tons was standing in the berth, and this represented the heaviest weight that had ever been sent down the ways up to that time.
  10. (plural only) The longitudinal guiding surfaces on the bed of a planer, lathe, etc. along which a table or carriage moves.
Quotations
"It's a long way to Tipperary, / it's a long way to go." [It’s a Long Way to Tipperary, a marching and music hall song by Jack Judge and Henry "Harry" James Williams, popularized especially by British troops in World War One]
  • (a tradition within Heathenry): To walk the Way of the Runes, you must experience the runes as they manifest both in the part of Midgard that lies outside yourself and the worlds within. (Diana Paxson)
Hyponyms
Derived terms
  • See also Wikisaurus:way

Related terms

Translations

Interjection

way

  1. (only in reply to no way) It is true.
    • 2011, William Schwenn, Dogs of Meadowbrook:
      We repeated this ritual of “no way - way, no way - way” over the years.

Verb

way ‎(third-person singular simple present ways, present participle waying, simple past and past participle wayed)

  1. (obsolete) To travel.
    • 1596, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, IV.ii:
      on a time as they together way'd, / He made him open chalenge [...].

Statistics

Most common English words before 1923: how · long · am · #121: way · even · say · well

Etymology 2

Apheresis of away.

Alternative forms

Adverb

way ‎(not comparable)

  1. (informal, with comparative or modified adjective) Much.
    I'm way too tired to do that.
    I'm a way better singer than she.
    • 2006, Keyboard, Volume 32, Issues 1-6, page 132,
      It turns out that's way more gain than you need for a keyboard, but you don't have to use all of it to benefit from the sonic characteristics.
  2. (slang, with positive adjective) Very.
    I'm way tired
    String theory is way cool, except for the math.
    • 2005, Erika V. Shearin Karres, Crushes, Flirts, & Friends: A Real Girl's Guide to Boy Smarts, page 16,
      With all the way cool boys out there, what if you don't recognize them because you don't know what to look for? Or, what if you have a chance to pick a perfect Prince and you end up with a yucky Frog instead?
  3. (informal) Far.
    I used to live way over there.
    The farmhouse is way down the bottom of the hill.
Synonyms
Translations
See also
  • way too
  • way too many
  • way too much

Etymology 3

From the sound it represents, by analogy with other velar letters such as kay and gay.

Noun

way ‎(plural ways)

  1. The letter for the w sound in Pitman shorthand.
Related terms
  • double-u, the name of the Latin letter for this sound

Anagrams

Lampung Api

way

Etymology

From Proto-Lampungic, from Proto-Sunda-Sulawesi *wair, from Proto-Malayo-Polynesian *wahiʀ.

Noun

way

  1. water (clear liquid H₂O)

Tz'utujil

Noun

way

  1. tortilla

Synonyms

Ujir

Noun

way

  1. water

References

  • Blust's Austronesian Comparative Dictionary

Etymology

From specific instances of way. In Christian contexts, a calque of the Ancient Greek terminology of the New Testament. In Chinese contexts, a calque of Chinese 道 ‎(Dào).

Similar Results