way

Alternative forms

• waye, waie (both obsolete)

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.

      • 1667, John Milton, “Book II”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC:

        The way seems difficult, and steep to scale.

      • 1688 November 15 (Gregorian calendar), John Evelyn, “[Diary entry for 5 November 1688]”, in William Bray, editor, Memoirs, Illustrative of the Life and Writings of John Evelyn, […], 2nd edition, volume I, London: Henry Colburn, […]; and sold by John and Arthur Arch, […], published 1819, →OCLC:

        the season and ways very improper for his Majesty's forces to march so great a distance

      • 1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter IV, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC:

        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[rosby] Lincoln, chapter IV, in Mr. Pratt’s Patients, New York, N.Y., London: D[aniel] Appleton and Company, →OCLC:

        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.

      • "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]
      • "Do you know the way to San Jose?" [song title and lyrics, Bacharach and David]
      • 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: A Mystery, London: Chatto & Windus, →OCLC:

        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.

3. 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[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter II, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC:

     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.

   1. (with 'the', usually with modifier) A set of values and customs associated with and seen as central to the identity of a group of people.
      • 2023 June 10, Patricia Murphy, “OPINION: ‘Atlanta way’ long gone as city leaders face death threats over training center”, in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution:
4. A state or condition

   When I returned home, I found my house and belongings in a most terrible way.

5. (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.

6. (Germanic 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.
   • 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)
7. (nautical, uncountable) Speed, progress, momentum.
   • 1855 December – 1857 June, Charles Dickens, Little Dorrit, London: Bradbury and Evans, […], published 1857, →OCLC:

     Immediately afterwards, a quick and eager 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.

   • 1977, Richard O'Kane, Clear the Bridge: The War Patrols of the U.S.S. Tang, Ballantine Books, published 2003, page 343:

     Ten minutes into the run Tang slowed, Welch calling out her speed as she lost way.

8. A degree, an amount, a sense.

   In a significant way, crocodiles and alligators are similar.

   • 1913, Joseph C[rosby] Lincoln, chapter VIII, in Mr. Pratt’s Patients, New York, N.Y., London: D[aniel] Appleton and Company, →OCLC:

     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.

9. (US, As the head of an interjectory clause, followed by an infinitive starting with “to”) 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.

10. (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.

11. (plural only) The longitudinal guiding surfaces on the bed of a planer, lathe, etc. along which a table or carriage moves.

Interjection

way

1. (slang, only in reply to no way) yes; it is true; it is possible

   Synonym: yes way

   • 1992, Wayne's World (film):

     - We searched the vehicle. It was clean, so we did the body cavity searches.
     - No way.
     - Way!

   • 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 […] .

   • 1919, Gotō Shinpei, "Japanese Statesman on Christian Missions", The Missionary Review, Volume 42, p. 660

     Laötze says, “The Name that can be named is not the Eternal Name. The Way that can be wayed, is not the Eternal Way.” Infinite wisdom is beyond the human power to understand.

Alternative forms

• 'way, ’way (dated)

Adverb

way (not comparable)

1. (informal, with an adverbial) Far.

   I used to live way over there.

   The farmhouse is way down the bottom of the hill.

   He kicked the ball way up.

   • 2020 September 23, Paul Bigland, “The tragic tale of the Tay Bridge disaster”, in Rail, page 81:

     A number of Dundee businessmen commuted across the bridge from their homes in Wormit, and some became concerned at the speeds that trains were crossing the bridge. Ex-Dundee Provost William Robertson timed one train at 43mph, way in excess of the 25mph speed limit.

   • 2020, L. William Zahner, “Corrosion Characteristics”, in Aluminum Surfaces: a Guide to Alloys, Finishes, Fabrication and Maintenance in Architecture and Art, John Wiley & Sons, →ISBN, →OCLC, page 287:

     The initial exposure of aluminum, regardless of alloy, will form a thin oxide film on the surface the second it is exposed. This film continues to grow and, after a few days of exposure, the growth slows way down.

2. (informal, with comparative or with too + adjective) Much, far, by a great degree.

   I'm a way better singer than Emma.

   I'm way too tired to do that.

   • 2006, Keyboard, volume 32, numbers 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.

   • 2023 April 18 (last accessed), “Top differences between human and animal skin”, in Genoskin‎:

     Porcine dermal collagen is similar to human dermal collagen biochemically. In mouse skin, the dermis is once again way thinner than in humans.

3. (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?

Adjective

way (not comparable)

1. (informal, attributive) Extreme, far

   Sitting in the way back of the bus

   • 2022 August 19, @DazzlerAOA, Twitter‎:

     some day in the way future me and @HowdyDuda are gonna have to come for a visit…

   • 2023 July 10, @JLoading06, Twitter‎:

     This will be a funny one with Snow’s 2 1st rounders going to be at the way bottom while 2 of his mid round picks will be towards the very top.

Noun

way (plural ways)

2. (glassblowing, obsolete) A seventeenth-century unit of Rhenish glass containing 60 bunches.

   Synonym: web

Noun

way (plural ways)

1. The letter for the w sound in Pitman shorthand.

Declension

Synonyms

• (time, instance): wák

Derived terms

Derived terms

• way sapayan

Noun

way

1. Alternative spelling of we (“sun, day”)

Noun

way

1. Alternative spelling of wwe (“water”)

See also

• (Latin-script letter names) titik; ey, bi, si, di, i, ef, dyi, eyts, ay, dyey, key, el, em, en, enye, en dyi, o, pi, kyu, ar, es, ti, yu, vi, dobolyu, eks, way, zi

Synonyms

• away