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

However, their celebratory moment was waylaid when a bumblebee set its sights on the actress. —Michael Nied, People.com, 13 Aug. 2025

Traditions are waylaid, revised, or simply forgotten in assimilation’s slow creep. —Terry Nguyen july 23, Literary Hub, 23 July 2025

The first phase of Azura went quietly online in 2020, its grand opening waylaid by the pandemic. —Hannah Walhout, Travel + Leisure, 28 June 2025

It’s further waylaid by the burgeoning Black Lives Matter protests in town. —Bill Goodykoontz, AZCentral.com, 19 Feb. 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