The Collaborative Dictionary

Way \Way\, n. [OE. wey, way, AS. weg; akin to OS., D., OHG., & G. weg, Icel. vegr, Sw. v[aum]g, Dan. vei, Goth. wigs, L. via, and AS. wegan to move, L. vehere to carry, Skr. vah. [root]136. Cf. Convex, Inveigh, Vehicle, Vex, Via, Voyage, Wag, Wagon, Wee, Weigh.] [1913 Webster]

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. [1913 Webster] I shall him seek by way and eke by street. --Chaucer. [1913 Webster] The way seems difficult, and steep to scale. --Milton. [1913 Webster] The season and ways were very improper for his majesty's forces to march so great a distance. --Evelyn. [1913 Webster]

Length of space; distance; interval; as, a great way; a long way. [1913 Webster] And whenever the way seemed long, Or his heart began to fail. --Longfellow. [1913 Webster]

A moving; passage; procession; journey. [1913 Webster] I prythee, now, lead the way. --Shak. [1913 Webster]

Course or direction of motion or process; tendency of action; advance. [1913 Webster] If that way be your walk, you have not far. --Milton. [1913 Webster] And let eternal justice take the way. --Dryden. [1913 Webster]

The means by which anything is reached, or anything is accomplished; scheme; device; plan. [1913 Webster] My best way is to creep under his gaberdine. --Shak. [1913 Webster] By noble ways we conquest will prepare. --Dryden. [1913 Webster] What impious ways my wishes took! --Prior. [1913 Webster]

Manner; method; mode; fashion; style; as, the way of expressing one's ideas. [1913 Webster]

Regular course; habitual method of life or action; plan of conduct; mode of dealing. "Having lost the way of nobleness." --Sir. P. Sidney. [1913 Webster] Her ways are ways of pleasantness, and all her paths are peace. --Prov. iii.

[1913 Webster] When men lived in a grander way. --Longfellow. [1913 Webster]

Sphere or scope of observation. --Jer. Taylor. [1913 Webster] The public ministers that fell in my way. --Sir W. Temple. [1913 Webster]

Determined course; resolved mode of action or conduct; as, to have one's way. [1913 Webster]

(Naut.) (a) Progress; as, a ship has way. (b) pl. The timbers on which a ship is launched. [1913 Webster]

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. [1913 Webster]

(Law) Right of way. See below. [1913 Webster] 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,

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, 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.,

[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. [1913 Webster] Syn: Street; highway; road. Usage: 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. [1913 Webster] All keep the broad highway, and take delight With many rather for to go astray. --Spenser. [1913 Webster] There is but one road by which to climb up. --Addison. [1913 Webster] When night Darkens the streets, then wander forth the sons Of Belial, flown with insolence and wine. --Milton. [1913 Webster]

Way \Way\, adv. [Aphetic form of away.] Away. [Obs. or Archaic] --Chaucer. [1913 Webster] 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] [1913 Webster]

Way \Way\, v. t. To go or travel to; to go in, as a way or path. [Obs.] "In land not wayed." --Wyclif. [1913 Webster]

Way \Way\, v. i. To move; to progress; to go. [R.] [1913 Webster] On a time as they together wayed. --Spenser. [1913 Webster]

Word Net

way

1 how something is done or how it happens; "her dignified manner"; "his rapid manner of talking"; "their nomadic mode of existence"; "in the characteristic New York style"; "a lonely way of life"; "in an abrasive fashion" [syn: manner, mode, style, fashion]

2 how a result is obtained or an end is achieved; "a means of control"; "an example is the best agency of instruction"; "the true way to success" [syn: means, agency]

3 a journey or passage; "they are on the way"

4 the condition of things generally; "that's the way it is"; "I felt the same way"

5 a course of conduct; "the path of virtue"; "we went our separate ways"; "our paths in life led us apart"; "genius usually follows a revolutionary path" [syn: path, way of life]

6 any artifact consisting of a road or path affording passage from one place to another; "he said he was looking for the way out"

7 a line leading to a place or point; "he looked the other direction"; "didn't know the way home" [syn: direction]

8 the property of distance in general; "it's a long way to Moscow"; "he went a long ways" [syn: ways]

9 doing as one pleases or chooses; "if I had my way"

10 a general category of things; used in the expression `in the way of'; "they didn't have much in the way of clothing"

11 space for movement; "room to pass"; "make way for"; "hardly enough elbow room to turn around" [syn: room, elbow room]

12 a portion of something divided into shares; "the split the loot three ways" adv : to a great degree or by a great distance; very much (`right smart' is regional in the United States); "way over budget"; "way off base"; "the other side of the hill is right smart steeper than the side we are on" [syn: right smart]

Moby Thesaurus

ability, access, ache to, action, actions, activity, acts, address, adit, admission, advance, advancement, advancing, aesthetic distance, affectation, aim, aim at, air, air lock, air space, alley, ambition, ample scope, animus, appetence, appetency, appetite, application, apply for, approach, ardor, area, arrangement, art, artery, ask, ask for, asking, attack, automatism, avenue, azimuth, bad habit, bag, be desirous of, be dying to, bearing, beg leave, behavior, behavior pattern, behavioral norm, behavioral science, bent, bespeak, blank check, blueprint, blueprinting, body-build, bon ton, boulevard, brand, breed, burn to, byway, calculation, call for, capacity, capital, career, carriage, carte blanche, cast, catch, channel, character, characteristic, characteristics, charting, choice, choose, choose to, class, clearance, command, command of language, compass, complexion, comportment, composition, conation, conatus, conception, concupiscence, conduct, conduit, conformity, constituents, constitution, consuetude, continualness, continuance, continuation, continuity, contrivance, convention, corridor, course, crasis, crave, creature of habit, culture pattern, cup of tea, curiosity, current, custom, dearest wish, dearly love to, decide, decision, decree, deep space, demand, demeanor, deportment, depths of space, desiderate, desideration, desideratum, design, desire, determination, determine, device, devices, dharma, diathesis, direction, direction line, discretion, disposable resources, disposition, distance, ditch, divergence, doing, doings, drag, drift, driftway, drive, duct, eagerness, egress, elbowroom, endurance, enterprise, entrance, entranceway, entree, entry, entryway, envisagement, established way, ethos, etiquette, exaggeration, exit, expressed desire, expression of ideas, extension, extent, fancy, fantasy, farness, fashion, favor, feel, feeling for words, fiber, field, figuring, file for, folkway, forbidden fruit, force of habit, foresight, forethought, form, form of speech, forte, forward motion, forwardal, forwarding, frame, free choice, free course, free hand, free play, free scope, free will, full scope, full swing, funds, furtherance, furthering, game, gangplank, gangway, genius, gestures, glimmering goal, go-ahead, goings-on, golden vision, grace of expression, grain, grandiloquence, graphing, ground plan, guidelines, guise, habit, habit pattern, habitude, hall, hang, have designs on, heading, headroom, headway, helmsmanship, highway, hope, horme, hue, humor, humors, idea, ilk, impetration, in, inclination, indent, infinity, inflation, ingress, inlet, intake, intellectual curiosity, intention, itch to, kidney, kind, knack, lane, latitude, lay, layout, leeway, length, lengthening, libido, lie, light-years, like, like to, liking, line, line of direction, line of march, lineup, literary style, lodestone, long rope, long suit, long to, long-range plan, love, love to, lust, lust after, lust for learning, magnet, main interest, maintenance, maintien, make a request, make a requisition, make application, makeup, maneuvering space, manner, manner of speaking, mannerism, manners, mapping, march, margin, master plan, means, means of access, method, methodology, methods, metier, mien, mileage, mind, mode, mode of expression, modus, modus vivendi, mold, mores, motions, movements, moves, nature, navigation, need, no holds barred, objective, observable behavior, observance, ongoing, onward course, open space, opening, operations research, order, organization, orientation, parsecs, passage, passageway, passion, path, pattern, peculiarity, perpetuation, perseverance, persistence, personal style, perspective, pet subject, petition, physique, piece, piloting, plan, planning, play, pleasure, pleasure principle, plum, point, poise, port, pose, posture, power, practice, praxis, prearrangement, prefer, prescription, presence, prize, procedure, proceeding, program, program of action, progress, progression, progressiveness, prolongation, promotion, proper thing, property, protraction, pursuance, pursuit, put in for, quality, quarter, range, rationalization, reach, recourses, remoteness, repetition, request, requisition, resolution, resolve, resorts, resources, rhetoric, ride, ritual, road, rolling, rolling on, room, room to spare, rope, route, row, run, schedule, schema, schematism, schematization, scheme, scheme of arrangement, scope, sea room, second nature, see fit, sense of language, separation, set, setup, sexual desire, shape, social convention, social science, somatotype, sort, space, span, spare room, specialism, speciality, specialization, specialty, species, spirit, stamp, standard behavior, standard usage, standing custom, staying power, steerage, steerageway, steering, stereotype, stereotyped behavior, sternway, stock, straight course, strain, strategic plan, strategy, streak, street, stretch, stride, stripe, strong point, style, stylistic analysis, stylistics, suchness, supply, sustained action, sustenance, swing, system, systematization, tactical plan, tactics, take to, technicality, technique, temper, temperament, temptation, tendency, tenor, the big picture, the grand style, the picture, the plain style, the sublime, thing, think fit, think good, think proper, thirst for knowledge, thoroughfare, time-honored practice, tolerance, tone, touch, track, tradition, travel, trench, trend, trick, trophy, trough, troughing, troughway, tunnel, turn, type, uninterrupted course, unremittingness, urge, usage, use, variety, vein, velleity, vestibule, vocation, volition, want, want to, wanting, way in, way of life, ways, ways and means, weakness, what is done, wherewith, wherewithal, whistle for, wide berth, will, will and pleasure, will power, wise, wish, wish fulfillment, wish to, wish to goodness, wish very much, wont, wonting, working plan, would fain do

English

Alternative spellings

• waye (obsolete)

Pronunciation

• , /weɪ/, /weI/
• Rhymes with: -eɪ
• Homophones: weigh, wey, whey (in accents with the wine-whine merger)

Etymology

From weg. Cognate with Dutch weg, German Weg, Swedish väg.

Noun

1. A path.
2. A method of doing something.
3. The means to navigate a path.
4. Possiblility (usually in the phrases 'any way' and 'no way').
5. In the context of "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. In the context of "nautical": ways the sloping structures on which ships are built and launched

Quotations

• (means to navigate a path) "Do you know the way to San Jose?" * (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)''

Derived terms

rel-top terms derived from way

• every which way
• give way
• in the way
• have one's way
• have one's wicked way
• no way
• on the way
• right of way
• runway
• slipway
• taxiway
• Way of the Cross
• waybill

Translations