An object, whether natural feature or artificial structure, that serves as a guide to the traveller. Also fig.
1611. Bible, Jer. xxxi. 21. Set thee vp way-markes.
a. 1656. Bp. Hall, Rem. Wks. (1660), 2. Wherein it seems there was continual fire kept for the way-mark of travellers.
1703. Thoresby, Diary (1830), I. 424. Now it is so naked that there is not so much as one [tree] left for a way-mark.
1780. Cowper, Progr. Error, 117. Is this the path of sanctity? Is this To stand a way-mark in the road to bliss?
1871. Tylor, Prim. Cult., I. 19. Survival in Culture, placing all along the course of advancing civilization way-marks full of meaning to those who can decipher their signs.
1882. Pusey, Paroch. & Cathedr. Serm., xv. 211. The brilliant way-marks in the corners of our else dark streets are the palaces for the drunken.
1899. Baring-Gould, Bk. West, II. viii. 131. High towers … serve as waymarks over land that was all formerly waste.
