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

• ambush
• attack

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

Ensure a simple-enough menu stays manageable with a to-do list so you’re not waylaid by days-long side quests. —Joseph Hernandez, Bon Appetit Magazine, 21 Oct. 2025

In Pecos, a shelter employee named Luis gave me a tour while Wright was waylaid by a man in a black pickup truck who wanted to surrender four pit bulls. —Rachel Monroe, New Yorker, 16 Oct. 2025

An introduction to the press in November 2019 netted immediate e-commerce sales but Nomasei was waylaid by the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, four months in. —Lily Templeton, Footwear News, 14 Oct. 2025

But underperformance has waylaid each of the last two seasons (159-165 over that period). —Levi Weaver, New York Times, 30 Sep. 2025

Word History

First Known Use

1513, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Rhymes for waylay

• airway
• allay
• archway
• array
• ashtray
• astray
• aue
• away
• ballet
• belay
• beltway
• beret

Kids Definition

waylay

verb

way·​lay ˈwā-ˌlā 

waylaid -ˌlād  ; waylaying

: to attack from a hiding place