Definition of "way"

way¹

/weɪ/

noun
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.
    Quotations
    The way seems difficult, and steep to scale.
    1667, John Milton, “Book II”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], […]; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873,
    the season and ways very improper for his Majesty's forces to march so great a distance
    1688 November 15 (Gregorian calendar), John Evelyn, “”, 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
    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.
    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.
    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.
    1913, Joseph C. Lincoln, chapter 4, in Mr. Pratt's Patients
    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.
    2013 June 22, “Snakes and ladders”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8841, page 76
  2. A means to enter or leave a place.
    Quotations
    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.
    1963, Margery Allingham, chapter 14, in The China Governess‎
  3. A roughly-defined geographical area.
2. A method or manner of doing something; a mannerism.
  Quotations
  “[…] 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.”
  1913, Robert Barr, chapter 4, in Lord Stranleigh Abroad
  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.
  1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter II, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company
  […] 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.
  1959, Georgette Heyer, chapter 1, in The Unknown Ajax
  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.
  2013 June 1, “A better waterworks”, in The Economist‎, volume 407, number 8838, page 5 (Technology Quarterly)
  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.
    Quotations
    2023 June 10, Patricia Murphy, “OPINION: ‘Atlanta way’ long gone as city leaders face death threats over training center”, in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
3. A state or condition
4. (heading) Personal interaction.
  1. Possibility (usually in the phrases 'any way' and 'no way').
  2. Determined course; resolved mode of action or conduct.
5. (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.
6. (nautical, uncountable) Speed, progress, momentum.
  Quotations
  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.
  1855 December – 1857 June, Charles Dickens, Little Dorrit, London: Bradbury and Evans, […], published 1857
  Ten minutes into the run Tang slowed, Welch calling out her speed as she lost way.
  1977, Richard O'Kane, Clear the Bridge: The War Patrols of the U.S.S. Tang, Ballantine Books, published 2003, page 343
7. A degree, an amount, a sense.
  Quotations
  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.
  1913, Joseph C. Lincoln, chapter 8, in Mr. Pratt's Patients
8. (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.
  Quotations
  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.
  2001, Joshua Nedelman, The Garden of Eastern, page 36
  Oh, way to start a rumor, Hope. Angel glared the silent statement at her sister.
  2009, Linda Winfree, Fall in Me, page 165
  "Oh, way to care about how I feel." His voice took on an exaggerated “Valley Girl” tone.
  2012, Nancy Manther, A Charmed Life
9. (plural only) The timbers of shipyard stocks that slope into the water and along which a ship or large boat is launched.
  Quotations
  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.
  1912, Fredrick A. Talbot, Steamship Conquest of the World‎, page 36
10. (plural only) The longitudinal guiding surfaces on the bed of a planer, lathe, etc. along which a table or carriage moves.
interjection
1. (slang, only in reply to no way) yes; it is true; it is possible
  Quotations
  - We searched the vehicle. It was clean, so we did the body cavity searches.- No way.- Way!
  1992, Wayne's World (film)
  We repeated this ritual of “no way - way, no way - way” over the years.
  2011, William Schwenn, Dogs of Meadowbrook
verb
third-person singular simple present ways, present participle waying, simple past and past participle wayed
1. (obsolete) To travel.
  Quotations
  on a time as they together way'd, / He made him open chalenge […] .
  1596, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, IV.ii
  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.
  1919, Gotō Shinpei, "Japanese Statesman on Christian Missions", The Missionary Review, Volume 42, p. 660

way²

/weɪ/

adverb
not comparable
1. (informal, with comparative or modified adjective) Much.
  Quotations
  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.
  2006, Keyboard, volume 32, numbers 1-6, page 132
  Porcine dermal collagen is similar to human dermal collagen biochemically. In mouse skin, the dermis is once again way thinner than in humans.
  2023 April 18 (last accessed), “Top differences between human and animal skin”, in Genoskin‎
2. (slang, with positive adjective) Very.
  Quotations
  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?
  2005, Erika V. Shearin Karres, Crushes, Flirts, & Friends: A Real Girl's Guide to Boy Smarts, page 16
3. (informal) Far.
  Quotations
  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 September 23, Paul Bigland, “The tragic tale of the Tay Bridge disaster”, in Rail, page 81
adjective
not comparable
1. (informal, attributive) Extreme, far
  Quotations
  some day in the way future me and @HowdyDuda are gonna have to come for a visit…
  2022 August 19, @DazzlerAOA, 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.
  2023 July 10, @JLoading06, Twitter‎

way³

/weɪ/

noun
plural ways
1. The letter for the w sound in Pitman shorthand.

Definition of "way"

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noun

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interjection

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verb

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way2

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adjective

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way3

noun

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