Obs. exc. Sc., north. and U.S. [Aphetic f. AWAY. Cf. G. weg similarly used.]
1. = AWAY adv. in various senses. † Do way: see DO v. 53.
c. 1205. Lay., 15933. Let alæten þis wæter & wei weorpen [c. 1275 awey werpe].
a. 1300–1598. Do way [see DO v. 53].
1460. Paston Lett., I. 525. As for tythyngs here, the Kyng is way at Eltham.
1533. More, 2nd Pt. Confut. Tindale, IV. Wks. 593/2. Which great occasyons Godde suffred to fal vpon him and carye hym waye. [Tindale’s words are: to carye him clene oute of the waye.]
1818. Scott, Hrt. Midl., xxvi. Gae wa’, gae wa’.
1871. W. Alexander, Johnny Gibb, iii. Gae ’wa’, ye haveril.
1908. George Fitch, ‘Traveling for the Presidency,’ in Collier’s, 17 Oct., 13/2 (Thornton s.v. Lunch-counter). Mr. Bryan has, during the past twelve years, eaten or otherwise made way with over 1,700 meals at railroad lunch-counters.
2. esp. At or to a (great) distance, far. a. with preps.
1849. W. S. Mayo, Kaloolah, v. (1850), 44. You see it was way towards Tupper’s Lake.
1854. Seba Smith (title), Way down East.
1888. Mrs. Custer, Tenting on Plains, viii. 239. He sat ’way under the mantel to let the tobacco-smoke go up the chimney.
1891. Anthony’s Photogr. Bull., IV. 29. I would have sold at a very low price, way below cost.
1901. Lee Bacon, Houseboat on Nile, 51. The Howadji … was ’way up in that painter’s paradise where [etc.].
b. With advs., as through, off; hence way-off a., distant; way-back U.S. slang, in the phrase from way-back = from a remote or rural district; hence attrib. and quasi-adj.
1887. New York Ev. Post, 4 Oct. The *way-back delegates, those from the farms and the small villages.
1889. ‘Mark Twain,’ Yankee at Crt. Arthur, xxxi. He thinks he’s a Sheol of a farmer; thinks he’s old Grayback from Wayback.
1907. Daily Chron., 2 Sept., 2/7. The Whitmans were American ‘from way back.’
1918. Blackw. Mag., May, 608/2. There was a fundi [note: an expert in a department of knowledge] in Nairobi a while back who used to let on that the pictures on some vases or other (Greek, he called them) were done from wayback Masai.
1869. Mrs. Whitney, We Girls, xiv. (1876), 229. General and Mrs. Ingleside had come from their *way-off, beautiful Wisconsin home.
1897. S. Crane, Third Violet, xxxiii. 215. I am going somewhere; but I don’t know where. ’Way off, anyhow.
1908. S. E. White, Riverman, ix. Until you got sick of it *way through.
3. Comb.
a. with a pa. pple. or verb, as way-gone; † way-put v. Sc., to put away: (a) to effect the escape of (a fugitive from justice); (b) = PUT v. 38. d.
1831. Sutherland Farm Rep., 81, in Libr. Usef. Knowl., Husb., III. They are sorted into their wedder herdings to replace the *waygone lot of the last year’s ewe hogs.
1538. in Pitcairn, Crim. Trials (Bannatyne Club), I. *205. [John Tuedy, in Lyntoun, convicted of art and part of the treasonable assistance given to James Douglas…: And for art and part of] *way-putting [him].
1540. Extracts Aberd. Reg. (1844), I. 170. That nane of thaim way put nor dispone vpon the necessaris requirit to the said schip as ane schip of weir.
b. with vbl. sbs. (or other nouns of action), chiefly Sc., as waycoming, -fleeing, -passing, -sending, -sliding; way-ganging = WAY-GOING; † weisith, departure, death; way-taking, the action or an act of taking (something) away, removal. Also WAY-GOING.
1651. Sir A. Johnston (Ld. Wariston), Diary (S.T.S.), II. 95. Heard of the Scots airmy coming to Dumfermling after hir *waycoming.
1513. Douglas, Æneis, IV. vi. 93. Tofoir thi *wayfleing, Had I ane child consavit of thi ofspring.
1456. Sir G. Haye, Law Arms (S.T.S.), 176. Gif a man … assuris ane othir frely to cum, and spekis nocht of his *way ganging.
a. 1605. R. Bannatyne’s Jrnl. (1806), 490. It was ewin, at the way ganging of the day light.
1898. Ld. E. Hamilton, Mawkin of Flow, xi. 125. I’d be laith to get an ill name at the very outset of our way-ganging.
1479. Acta Dom. Concil. (1839), 45/1. Þat þe persouns þt past fra þe eleccioun of þe said Alexander be summond … to ansuer … for þair *way passing.
a. 1578. Lindesay (Pitscottie), Chron. Scot. (S.T.S.), II. 11. [They] brunt the toun at thair way passing.
a. 1572. Knox, Hist. Ref., Wks. 1846, I. 420. Sche farther willit, to offer the *way-sending of the men of weir.
c. 1205. Lay., 25846. [She] weop for hire *wei-sið. Ibid., 28199. Scullen alle mine feond wæi-sið makeȝe.
1818. Scott, Hrt. Midl., xviii. Avoiding right-hand snares and extremes, and left-hand *way-slidings.
1479. Acta Audit. (1839), 93/1. Befor þe lordis comperit Dauid Wemys summond … anent þe *wataking of thre oxin furth of þe landis of myrecarny.
a. 1572. Knox, Hist. Ref., Wks. 1846, I. 56. And so did Jesus Christ, the onlye trew Light, schyne unto many, for the way-tackin of one.
1625. in Spalding Club Misc., V. 218. The gryt trubill and discord betuin the laird and his tenantis anent the waytaking of doris at thair remowing.
