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 of waylay

• 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

The administration’s response is to waylay Lucy in the hall and drag her unprepared into a surprise meeting with the dean, Caitie, and Baird’s second-creepiest professor, Marianne, to discuss coming forward with her (false) allegation of rape. —Kathleen Walsh, Vulture, 20 Jan. 2026

In addition, the multiple injuries have waylaid his development. —Anthony Bettin, CBS News, 14 Jan. 2026

They were supposed to come together at the Palm Springs Film Festival earlier this month, but DiCaprio got famously waylaid while traveling back from his Jeff Bezos yacht vacation. —Bryan Alexander, USA Today, 9 Jan. 2026

Damon takes center stage as Odysseus, the brave and cunning king of Ithaca who gets waylaid for 10 years trying to return home to his loyal wife, Penelope (Anne Hathaway), and dutiful son, Telemachus (Tom Holland), after playing a key role in the Trojan War. —Oliver Gettell, Entertainment Weekly, 22 Dec. 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