waylay

verb

way·​lay ˈwā-ˌlā 

waylaid ˈwā-ˌlād  ; waylaying; waylays

transitive verb

1

: to lie in wait for or attack (someone) from ambush

… he had been waylaid, bound hand and foot, and thrown into a marsh. But he got out again, somehow, to cause a great deal of trouble yet.

—Charles Dickens

2

: to temporarily stop the movement or progress of (someone or something)

The barkeeper, Tony, would come out of his saloon and wait to waylay the men going home. He could always entice a man with a full pocket into his saloon.

—Meridel Le Sueur

I can get waylaid by tangential thoughts and associations in mid-sentence, and this leads to parentheses, subordinate clauses, sentences of paragraphic length. I never use one adjective if six seem to me better and, in their cumulative effect, more incisive.

—Oliver Sacks

Synonyms

• ambuscade
• ambush
• surprise
• surprize

Examples of waylay in a Sentence

Gangs sometimes waylay travelers on that road.

We were waylaid by a group of kids with water balloons.

Recent Examples on the Web

Some experts have cited railroad monopolization as a primary reason electrification efforts keep getting waylaid. —Andrew J. Hawkins, The Verge, 12 Aug. 2024

The classic is about Michael, an Irish sailor (Welles), who rescues Elsa (Hayworth) when her coach gets waylaid in Central Park and falls for her. —Georg Szalai, The Hollywood Reporter, 3 Sep. 2019

Subway travel in Brooklyn was briefly waylaid when a tree fell onto the tracks of the N train near the Eighth Ave. —Evan Simko-Bednarski, New York Daily News, 9 Aug. 2024

Meanwhile, federal legislation that could steer billions of dollars into modernizing the patchwork 911 system remains waylaid in Congress. —Stephanie Armour, USA TODAY, 16 July 2024

Word History

First Known Use

1513, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Kids Definition

waylay

verb

way·​lay ˈwā-ˌlā 

waylaid -ˌlād  ; waylaying

: to attack from a hiding place