1. 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. 2. 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. 3. A moving; passage; procession; journey.
I prythee, now, lead the way.
Shak. 4. 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. 5. 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. 6. Manner; method; mode; fashion; style; as, the way of expressing one's ideas.
7. 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. 8. Sphere or scope of observation. Jer. Taylor.
The public ministers that fell in my way.
Sir W. Temple. 9. Determined course; resolved mode of action or conduct; as, to have one's way.
10. (Naut.) (a) Progress; as, a ship has way. (b) pl. The timbers on which a ship is launched.
11. pl. (Mach.) The longitudinal guides, or guiding surfaces, on the bed of a planer, lathe, or the like,
along which a table or carriage moves.
12. (Law) 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
