subs. (colloquial).—Health, condition, state, calling; e.g., IN A BAD WAY = shaky in health, pocket, or manner; ONLY HIS WAY = characteristic: cf. ‘PRETTY FANNY’S WAY.’ Also in PHRASES: ‘To look BOTH (or NINE) WAYS for Sundays’ = to squint; ‘There are no TWO WAYS about it’ = the fact is as stated, there’s no mistake; OUT OF THE WAY (thieves’: see quot. 1819); ‘to note THE WAY THE CAT JUMPS = to watch the course of events; TO GO THE WAY OF NATURE (or ALL FLESH) = (1) to be fond of BELLY CHEER, and (2) to die: see HOP THE TWIG; TO KNOW ONE’S WAY ABOUT = to be well informed, experienced: see KNOW; WAY TO ST. JAMES’ (or WALSINGHAM WAY) = the Milky way (FULKE, Meteors, 1670, p. 81). ‘The LONGEST WAY ROUND is the shortest way there’ = a warning to the unwary or ignorant that short cuts are proverbial pitfalls: cf. ‘Better go about than fall into the ditch.’
c. 1350. The Tale of the Basyn [HAZLITT, Remains of the Early Popular Poetry of England, III. 45].
| After a ȝere or two his wyfe he myȝt not pleese; | |
| Mycall of his lande lay to the preests ese | |
| Eche tawȝt hym euer amang, HOW THE KATTE DID SNEESE. |
1601. SHAKESPEARE, Henry VIII., i. 3. 61. Men of his WAY should be most liberal.
1607. DEKKER, Westward Ho! ii. 2. I saw him even now going the WAY OF ALL FLESH, that is to say, towards the kitchen.
1698. COLLIER, A Short View of the Immorality and Profaneness of the English Stage, 211. When-ever you see a thorough Libertine, you may almost Swear he is in a rising WAY, and that the Poet intends to make him a great Man.
d. 1717. PARNELL, An Elegy to an Old Beauty.
| And all that’s madly wild, and oddly gay, | |
| We call it only PRETTY FANNY’S WAY. |
1763. FOOTE, The Mayor of Garratt, i. 1. Thinking that this would prove a busy day in the justicing WAY, I am come, Sir Jacob, to lend you a hand.
1777. SHERIDAN, The School for Scandal, i. 1. You must tell him to keep up his spirits; almost everybody is in the same WAY.
1809. MALKIN, Gil Blas [ROUTLEDGE], 13. I heard that Don Rodrigo had gone the WAY OF ALL FLESH.
1819. J. H. VAUX, Memoirs, ii. 194. OUT OF THE WAY, a thief who knows that he is sought after by the traps on some information, and consequently goes out of town, or otherwise conceals himself, is said by his palls to be OUT OF THE WAY FOR SO AND SO, naming the particular offence he stands charged with. [See WANTED.]
1825. The Universal Songster, i. (‘The Dogs’-Meat Man’).
| He soon saw WHICH WAY THE CAT DID JUMP, | |
| And his company he offered plump. |
1827. SCOTT, in Croker Papers (1884), I. xi. 319. Had I time, I believe I would come to London merely TO SEE HOW THE CAT JUMPED.
1835. C. F. HOFFMAN, A Winter in the West, ii. 221–2. THERE’S NO TWO WAYS ABOUT THAT, sir; but aren’t you surprised to see such a fine population?
1841. THACKERAY, The Great Hoggarty Diamond, xiii. Is not Gus Hoskins, my brother-in-law, partner with his excellent father in the leather WAY?
1853. BULWER-LYTTON, My Novel, IV. 228. ‘But I rely equally on your friendly promise.’ ‘Promise! No—I don’t promise. I must first SEE HOW THE CAT JUMPS.’
1855. HALIBURTON (‘Sam Slick’), Human Nature, 3 S. vii. Jist so, jist so, stranger: you are just about half right, and there’s NO TWO WAYS ABOUT IT.
1859. LEVER, Davenport Dunn, III. 229. You’ll see with half an eye HOW THE CAT JUMPS.
1874. The Saturday Review, 14 Feb., 139. This dismays the humble Liberal of the faint Southern type, who thinks that there are subjects as to which the heads of his party need not wait to see HOW THE CAT JUMPS.
1887. Political Slang, in The Cornhill Magazine, June, 626. Those who sit on the fence—men with impartial minds, who wait to SEE, as another pretty phrase has it, ‘HOW THE CAT WILL JUMP.’
1867. All the Year Round, 13 July, 56. The tramp who KNOWS HIS WAY ABOUT knows what to do.
1892. MILLIKEN, ’Arry Ballads, 36, ‘At the Play.’ KNOWS HER WAY ABOUT well, I can tell yer.
