“way” – English explanatory dictionary

noun 1. a path or road which goes somewhere ○ Our neighbours across the way. ○ I’ll walk the first part of the way home with you. 2. a correct path or road to go somewhere ○ Do you know the way to the post office? ○ She showed us the way to the railway station. ○ They lost their way and had to ask for directions. ○ I’ll lead the way – just follow me. 3. □ on the way during a journey ○ I’ll stop at the post office on my way to the restaurant. ○ She’s on her way to the office. □ well on the way to nearly ○ The repairs to the house are well on the way to being finished. □ to go out of your way to help someone to make a special effort to help someone 4. a particular direction from here ○ a one-way street ○ Can you tell which way the wind is blowing? ○ This way please, everybody! 5. the means of doing something ○ My mother showed me the way to make marmalade. ○ Isn’t there any other way of making it? ○ He thought of a way of making money quickly. ○ The way she said it implied it was my fault. □ to get your own way to do what you want to do, even if other people don’t want you to do it (informal.) ○ She always seems to get her own way. 6. □ to have it both ways to take advantage from two courses of action ○ He wants to have it both ways, but he’ll soon realise he can’t. ○ You can’t have it both ways – going out to the club every evening and saving money. □ in many ways almost completely ○ In many ways, I think she is right. □ in some ways not completely ○ In some ways she may be wrong. 7. a manner of behaving ○ He spoke in a pleasant way. ○ You will have to get used to the manager’s funny little ways. 8. distance ○ The bank is quite a long way away. ○ He’s got a long way to go before he qualifies as a doctor. 9. a space where someone wants to be or which someone wants to use ○ Get out of my way – I’m in a hurry. ○ It’s best to keep out of the way of the police for a moment. ○ I wanted to take a short cut, but there was a lorry in the way. 10. progress, forward movement □ under way moving forwards ○ The project is under way at last. 11. □ in a bad way very ill ○ She’s in hospital and in a really bad way. ■ adv far, a long distance away ○ The bank is way beyond the Post Office. ○ Their financial problems started way back in 1998. ○ The price was way too high for me. □ way over your head difficult to understand ○ The book was way over my head.

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]

n. [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. rad.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.” Shak.
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.” Shak. “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 the way of all the earth, to die. — To make one’s way, to advance in life by one’s personal efforts. — To make way. See under Make, v. 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, n., 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, n., 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.

v. t. To go or travel to; to go in, as a way or path. [Obs.] ´In land not wayed.´ Wyclif.

v. i. To move; to progress; to go. [R.] “On a time as they together wayed.” Spenser.