WAY, n. [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. – Shak.
4. Passage; room for passing. Make way for the jury.
5. Course or regular course. And let eternal justice take the way. – Dryden.
6. Tendency to any meaning or act. There is nothing in the words that sounds that way. – Atterbury.
7. Sphere of observation. The general officers and the public ministers that fell in my way. – Temple.
8. Manner of doing any thing; method; means of doing; Seek the best way of learning, and pursue it. By noble ways we conquests will prepare. – Dryden.
9. Method; scheme of management. What impious ways my wishes took. – Prior.
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 person's 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. – Sidney.
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. – Prov. iii. All flesh had corrupted his way. – Gen. vi.
14. Course; process of things, good or bad. Things are a prosperous way.
15. Right method to act or know. We are quite out of the way. – Locke.
16. General scheme of acting. Men who go out of the way to hint free things, must be guilty of absurdity or rudeness. – Clarissa.
17. Sect; denomination of a particular faith, creed or worship. – Acts xix. 23.
18. Ways, plur. 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 one's 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 one's way, or to come one's way, to go or come along. – Shak. 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. – Rom. xi. Job xl. 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. – Pope. To be under way, in seamen's 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 sternway, 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 enemy's 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.] – Cyc.

1. 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]

2. 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.

3. To go or travel to; to go in, as a way or path.
   
   
   [Obs.] "In land not wayed." Wyclif.
4. To move; to progress; to go.
   
   
   [R.]

   On a time as they together wayed. Spenser.

5. 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.

6. A moving; passage; procession; journey.
   
   

   I prythee, now, lead the way. Shak.

7. 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.

8. 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.

9. Manner; method; mode; fashion; style; as, the way of expressing one's ideas.
10. 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.

11. Sphere or scope of observation.
    
    
    Jer. Taylor.

    The public ministers that fell in my way. Sir W. Temple.

12. Determined course; resolved mode of action or conduct; as, to have one's way.
13. Progress; as, a ship has way.
    
    
    (b) pl.
14. The longitudinal guides, or guiding surfaces, on the bed of a planer, lathe, or the like, along which a table or carriage moves.
15. 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.