Noah Webster’s 1828 Dictionary
WAY — WEDLOCK
WAY, n. [G., L.]
1. Literally, a passing; hence, a passage; the place of passing; hence, a road of any kind; a highway; a private road; a lane; a street; any place for the passing of men; cattle or other animals; a word of very comprehensive signification.
2. Length of space; as a great way; a little way.
3. Course; direction of motion or travel. What way did he take? Which way shall I go? Keep in the way of truth and knowledge.
Mark what way I make.
4. Passage; room for passing. Make way for the jury.
5. Course, or regular course.
And let eternal justice take the way.
6. Tendency to any meaning or act.
There is nothing in the words that sounds that way.
7. Sphere of observation.
The general officers and the public ministers that fell in my way--
8. Manner of doing any thing; method; means of doing. Seek the best way of learning, and pursue it.
By noble ways we conquest will prepare.
9. Method; scheme of management.
What impious ways my wishes took.
10. Manner of thinking or behavior; particular turn of opinion; determination or humor. Let him have his way, when that will not injure him, or any other person. But multitudes of children are ruined by being permitted to have their way.
11. Manner; mode. In no way does this matter belong to me. We admire a persons way of expressing his ideas.
12. Method; manner of practice. Find, if you can, the easiest way to live.
Having lost the way of nobleness.
13. Method or plan of life and conduct. Instruct your children in the right way.
Her ways are ways of pleasantness, and all her paths are peace. Proverbs 3:17.
All flesh had corrupted his way. Genesis 6:12.
14. Course; process of things, good or bad. Things are in a prosperous way.
15. Right method to act or know.
We are quite out of the way.
16. General scheme of acting.
Men who go out of the way to hint free things, must be guilty of absurdity or rudeness.
17. Ways, plu. the timbers on which a ship is launched.
To make way, to give room for passing; or to make a vacancy.
To give way, to recede; to make room; or to yield; to concede the place or opinion to another.
To make ones way, to advance in life by efforts; to advance successfully.
By the way, en passant, as we proceed; a phrase introducing something in discourse, not immediately connected with the subject.
To go ones way, or to come ones way, to go or come along.
To go the way of all the earth, to die.
In the way, a phrase noting obstruction. What is there in the way of your success?
In Scripture, the ways of God, are his providential government, or his works. Romans 11:33; Job 11:7.
Way and ways are used in certain phrases, in the sense of wise. He is no ways a match for his antagonist.
Tis no way the interest even of the priesthood.
To be under way, in seamens language, to be in motion, as when a ship begins to move. So a ship is said to have head-way, when she moves forward in her course, and stern-way, when she is driven astern. She is said also to gather way, or to lose way. Lee-way is a movement of a ship aside of her course, or to the leeward.
Milky way, in astronomy, the galaxy; a broad luminous belt or space in the heavens, supposed to be occasioned by the blended light of an immense number of stars. By means of a telescope of uncommon magnifying powers, Dr. Herschel has been able to ascertain this fact, by distinguishing the stars.
Covert way, in fortification, a passage covered from the enemys fire.
Ways and means, in legislation, means for raising money; resources for revenue.
Way-going crop, among farmers, is the crop which is taken from the ground the year the tenant leaves the farm. [England.]
WAY-BREAD, n. A name given to the herb plantain (plantago.) [Local.]
WAYFARER, n. A traveler; a passenger.
WAYFARING, a. [supra.] Traveling; passing; being on a journey. Judges 19:17.
WAYFARING-TREE, n. A shrub, a species of Viburnum.
WAYLAID, pp. Watched int he way. [See Waylay.]
WAYLAY, v.t. [way and lay.] To watch insidiously in the way, with a view to seize, rob or slay; to beset in ambush; as, to waylay a traveler. [In this word there is little difference of accent.]
WAYLAYER, n. One who waits for another in ambush, with a view to seize, rob or slay him.
WAY-LEAVE, n. A provincial term for the ground purchased for a wagon-way between coal-pits and a river. [Local.]
WAYLESS, a. Having no road or path; pathless; trackless.
WAY-MAKER, n. One who makes a way; a precursor.
WAY-MARK, n. [way and mark.] A mark to guide in traveling. Jeremiah 31:21.
WAYMENT, v.i. To lament. [Not in use.]
WAY-PANE, n. A slip left for cartage in watered land. [Local.]
WAY-THISTLE, n. A troublesome plant or perennial weed.
WAYWARD, a. [way and ward.] Froward; peevish; perverse; liking his own way.
Wayward beauty doth not fancy move.
WAY-WARDEN, n. In local usage, the surveyor of a road.
WAYWARDLY, adv. Frowardly; perversely.
WAYWARDNESS, n. Forwardness; perverseness.
WAY-WISER, n. An instrument for measuring the distance which one has traveled on the road; called also perambulator, and podometer, or pedometer.
WAYWODE, WAIWODE, n.
1. In the Ottoman empire, the governor of a small town or province, which not forming a pashawlic, is the appendage of some great officer; also, a mussulman charged with the collection of taxes, or with the police of a place.
2. In Poland, the governor of a province.
WAYWODESHIP, n. The province or jurisdiction of a waywode.
WE, pron. plu. of I; or rather a different word, denoting the person speaking and another or others with him. I and John, the speaker calls we, or I and John and Thomas; or I and many others. In the objective case, us. We is used to express men in general, including the speaker.
Vice seen too oft, familiar with her face, we first endure, then pity, then embrace.
WEAK, a. [G. The primary sense of the root is to yield, fail, give way, recede, or to be soft.]
1. Having little physical strength; feeble. Children are born weak; men are rendered weak by disease.
2. Infirm; not healthy; as a weak constitution.
3. Not able to bear a great weight; as a weak bridge; weak timber.
4. Not strong; not compact; easily broken; as a weak ship; a weak rope.
5. Not able to resist a violent attack; as a weak fortress.
6. Soft; pliant; not stiff.
7. Low; small; feeble; as a weak voice.
8. Feeble of mind; wanting spirit; wanting vigor of understanding; as a weak prince; a weak magistrate.
To think every thing disputable, si a proof of a weak mind and captious temper.
9. Not much impregnated with ingredients, or with things that excite action, or with stimulating and nourishing substances; as weak broth; weak tea; weak toddy; a weak solution; a weak decoction.
10. Not politically powerful; as a weak nation or state.
11. Not having force of authority or energy; as a weak government.
12. Not having moral force or power to convince; not well supported by truth or reason; as a weak argument.
13. Not well supported by argument; as weak reasoning.
14. Unfortified; accessible; impressible; as the weak side of a person.
15. Not having full conviction or confidence; as weak in faith.
16. Weak land is land of a light thin soil. [I believe never used in New England.]
WEAK, v.t. To make weak. [Not used.]
WEAK, v.i. To become weak. [Not used.]
WEAKEN, v.t.
1. To lessen the strength of, or to deprive of strength; to debilitate; to enfeeble; as, to weaken the body; to weaken the mind; to weaken the hands of the magistrate; to weaken the force of an objection or an argument.
2. To reduce in strength or spirit; as, to weaken tea; to weaken any solution or decoction.
WEAKENED, pp. Debilitated; enfeebled; reduced in strength.
WEAKENER, n. He or that which weakens.
WEAKENING, ppr. Debilitating; enfeebling; reducing the strength or vigor of any thing.
WEAK-HEARTED, a. Having little courage; dispirited.
WEAKLING, n. A feeble creature.
WEAKLY, adv.
1. Feebly; with little physical strength; faintly; not forcible; as a fortress weakly defended.
2. With want of efficacy.
Was plighted faith so weakly seald above?
3. With feebleness of mind or intellect; indiscretely; injuriously.
Beneath pretended justice weakly fall.
4. Timorously; with little courage or fortitude.
WEAKLY, a. Not strong of constitution; infirm; as a weakly woman; a man of a weakly constitution.
WEAKNESS, n.
1. Want of physical strength; want of force or vigor; feebleness; as the weakness of a child; the weakness of an invalid; the weakness of a wall or bridge, or of thread or cordage.
2. Want of sprightliness.
Soft, without weakness; without glaring, gay.
3. Want of steadiness.
By such a review, we shall discern and strengthen our weaknesses.
4. Infirmity; unhealthiness; as weakness of constitution.
5. Want of moral force or effect upon the mind; as the weakness of evidence; the weakness of arguments.
6. Want of judgment; feebleness of mind; foolishness.
All wickedness is weakness.
7. Defect; failing; fault; with a plural.
Many take pleasure in spreading abroad the weaknesses of an exalted character.
WEAKSIDE, n. [weak and side.] Foible; deficience; failing; infirmity.
WEAL, n. [G., L., to be strong, to avail, to prevail. The primary sense of weal is strength, soundness, from the sense of straining, stretching or advancing.]
1. A sound state of a person or thing; a state which is prosperous, or at least not unfortunate, not declining; prosperity; happiness.
As we love the weal of our souls and bodies.
The weal or wo in thee is placd.
So we say, the public weal, the general weal, the weal of the nation or state.
2. Republic; state; public interest. [But we now use commonwealth, in the sense of state.]
WEAL, n. The mark of a stripe. [See Wale.] Weald, wald, walt, wold, in Saxon and other Teutonic dialects, signifies a wood or forest. It is found in names, as in Walt-ham, wood-house; corruptly pronounced Waltham.
WEALSMAN, n. [weal and man.] A name given sneeringly to a politician.
WEALTH, n.
1. Prosperity; external happiness.
2. Riches; large possessions of money, goods or land; that abundance of worldly estate which exceeds the estate of the greater part of the community; affluence; opulence.
Each day new wealth without their care provides.
WEALTHILY, adv. Richly.
WEALTHINESS, n. State of being wealthy; richness.
WEALTHY, a. Rich; having large possessions in lands, goods, money or securities, or larger than the generality of men; opulent; affluent. As wealth is a comparative thing, a man may be wealthy in one place, and not so in another. A man may be deemed wealthy in a village, who would not be so considered in London.
WEAN, v.t. [G. See Wont.]
1. To accustom and reconcile, as a child or other young animal, to a want or deprivation of the breast.
And the child grew, and was weaned. Genesis 21:8.
2. To detach or alienate, as the affections, from any object of desire; to reconcile to the want or loss of any thing; as, to wean the heart from temporal enjoyments.
WEANED, pp. Accustomed or reconciled to the want of the breast or other object of desire.
WEANEL, WEANLING, n. A child or other animal newly weaned.
WEANING, ppr. Accustoming or reconciling, as a young child or other animal, to a want of the breast; reconciling to the want of any object of desire.
WEAPON, n. [G., L.]
1. Any instrument of offense; any thing used or designed to be used in destroying or annoying an enemy. The weapons of rude nations are clubs, stones and bows and arrows. Modern weapons of war are swords, muskets, pistols, cannon and the like.
2. An instrument for contest, or for combating enemies.
The weapons of our warfare are not carnal. 2 Corinthians 10:4.
3. An instrument of defense.
4. Weapons, in botany, arms; thorns, prickles, and stings, with which plants are furnished for defense; enumerated among the fulcres by Linne.
WEAPONED, a. Wepnd. Armed; furnished with weapons or arms; equipped.
WEAPONLESS, a. Unarmed; having no weapon.
WEAPON-SALVE, n. [weapon and salve.] A salve which was supposed to cure the wound, by being applied to the weapon that made it.
WEAR, v.t. pret. wore; pp. worn.
1. To waste or impair by rubbing or attrition; to lessen or diminish by time, use or instruments. A current of water often wears a channel in limestone.
2. To carry appendant to the body, as clothes or weapons; as, to wear a coat or a robe; to wear a sword; to wear a crown.
On her white breast a sparkling cross she wore.
3. To have or exhibit an appearance; to bear; as, she wears a smile on her countenance.
4. To affect by degrees.
Trials wear us into a liking of what possible, in the first essay, displeased us.
To wear away, to consume; to impair, diminish or destroy by gradual attrition or decay.
To wear off, to diminish by attrition or slow decay.
To wear out,
1. To consume; to render useless by attrition or decay; as, to wear out a coat or a book.
2. To consume tediously; as, to wear out life in idle projects.
3. To harass; to tire.
He shall wear out the saints of the Most High. Daniel 7:25.
4. To waste the strength of; as an old amn worn out in the service of his country.
WEAR, v.i.
1. To be wasted; to be diminished by attrition, by use, or by time.
Thou wilt surely wear away. Exodus 18:18.
2. To be tediously spent.
Thus wore out night.
3. To be consumed by slow degrees. It is better to wear out, than to rust out.
To wear off, to pass away by degrees. The follies of youth wear off with age.
WEAR, n.
1. The act of wearing; diminution by friction; as the wear and tear of a garment.
2. The thing worn.
WEAR, n. [See Warren and Guard.]
1. A dam in a river to stop and raise the water, for conducting it to a mill, or for taking fish.
2. An instrument or kind of basket work for catching fish.
WEARABLE, a. That can be worn.
WEARD, Sax. A warden, in names, denotes watchfulness or care, but it must not be confounded with ward, in toward.
WEARER, n. [from wear.]
1. One who wears or carries as appendant to the body; as the wearer of a cloke, a sword or a crown.
2. That which wastes or diminishes.
WEARINESS, n. [from weary.]
1. The state of being weary or tired; that lassitude or exhaustion of strength which is induced by labor; fatigue.
With weariness and wine oppresd.
2. Lassitude; uneasiness proceeding from continued waiting, disappointed expectation or exhausted patience, or from other cause.
WEARING, ppr.
1. Bearing on or appendant to the person; diminishing by friction; consuming.
2. a. Denoting what is worn; as wearing apparel.
WEARING, n. Clothes; garments.
WEARISH, a.
1. Boggy; watery. [Not in use.]
2. Weak; washy. [Not in use.]
WEARISOME, a. [from weary.] Causing weariness; tiresome; tedious; fatiguing; as a wearisome march; a wearisome days work.
Wearisome nights are appointed unto me. Job 7:3.
WEARISOMELY, adv. Tediously; so as to cause weariness.
WEARISOMENESS, n. The quality of exhausting strength or patience; tiresomeness; tediousness; as the wearisomeness of toil, or of waiting long in anxious expectation.
WEARY, a.
1. Having the strength much exhausted by toil or violent exertion; tired; fatigued. [It should be observed however that this word expresses less than tired, particularly when applied to a beast; as a tired horse. It is followed by of, before the cause of fatigue; as, to be weary of marching; to be weary of reaping; to be weary of study.]
2. Having the patience exhausted, or the mind yielding to discouragement. He was weary of asking for redress.
3. Causing weariness; tiresome; as a weary way; a weary life.
WEARY, v.t. [from the adjective.]
1. To reduce or exhaust the physical strength of the body; to tire; to fatigue; as, to weary ones self with labor or traveling.
The people shall weary themselves for very vanity. Habakkuk 2:13.
2. To make impatient of continuance.
I stay too long by thee; I weary thee.
3. To harass by any thing irksome; as, to be wearied of waiting for the arrival of the post.
To weary out, to subdue or exhaust by fatigue.
WEASAND, WESAND, n. s as z. The windpipe or trachea; the canal through which air passes to and from the lungs.
WEASEL, WEESEL, n. s as z. A small animal of the genus Mustela, which lives under the roots of trees, or in other holes, and feeds on small birds, but particularly on mice. A weasel that frequents barns and corn-houses, frees them from rats and mice, and is sometimes deemed a very useful inmate.
WEASEL-COOT, n. The red headed smew or Mergus minutus.
WEATHER, n. Wether. [G., The primary sense of this word is air, wind or atmosphere; probably the Gr., whence ether.] Properly, the air; hence,
1. The state of the air or atmosphere with respect to heat or cold, wetness or dryness, calm or storm, clearness or cloudiness, and the like; as warm weather; cold weather; wet weather; dry weather; calm weather; tempestuous weather; fair weather; cloudy weather; hazy weather, and the like.
2. Change of the state of the air.
3. Storm; tempest.
[These last significations are not now in use, unless by a poetic license.]
Stress of weather, violent winds; force of tempests.
WEATHER, v.t. wether.
1. To air; to expose to the air. [Rarely used.]
2. In seamens language, to sail to the windward of something else; as, to weather a cape; to weather another ship. As this is often difficult, hence,
3. To pass with difficulty.
To weather a point, to gain or accomplish it against opposition.
To weather out, to endure; to hold out to the end; as, to weather out a storm.
Weather is used with several words, either as an adjective, or as forming part of a compound word.
WEATHER-BEATEN, a. [weather and beaten.] Beaten or harassed by the weather.
WEATHER-BIT, n. A turn of the cable about the end of the windlass, without the knight-heads.
WEATHER-BOARD, n. That side of a ship which is towards the wind; the windward side. So in other words, weather signifies towards the wind or windward; as, in weather-bow, weather-braces, weather-gage, weather-lifts, weather-quarter, weather-shrouds, weather-side, weather-shore, etc.
WEATHER-BOARDING, n. The act of nailing up boards against a wall; or the boards themselves.
WEATHER-BOARDS, n. Pieces of plank placed in the ports of a ship, when laid up in ordinary.
WEATHER-CLOTHS, n. Long pieces of canvas or tarpaulin used to preserve the hammocks from injury by the weather when stowed, or to defend persons from the wind and spray.
WEATHER-COCK, n. [weather and cock.]
1. Something in the shape of a cock placed on the stop of a spire, which by turning, shows the direction of the wind; a vane, or weather-vane.
2. Any thing or person that turns easily and frequently; a fickle, inconstant person.
WEATHER-DRIVEN, a. [weather and driven.] Driven by winds or storms; forced by stress of weather.
WEATHER-FEND, v.t. [weather and fend.] To shelter.
WEATHER-GAGE, n. [weather and gage.] Something that shows the weather. A ship is said to have the weather-gage of another, when she is at the windward of her.
WEATHER-GLASS, n. [weather and glass.] An instrument to indicate the state of the atmosphere. This word includes the barometer, thermometer, hygrometer, manometer, and anemometer.
WEATHER-HELM, n. [weather and helm.] A ship is said to carry a weather-helm, when she is inclined to come too near the wind.
WEATHERMOST, a. [weather and most.] Being farthest to the windward.
WEATHER-PROOF, a. [weather and proof.] Proof against rough weather.
WEATHER-ROLL, n. [weather and roll.] The roll of a ship to the windward; opposed to lee-lurch.
WEATHER-SPY, n. [weather and spy.] A star-gazer; one that foretells the weather. [Little used.]
WEATHER-TIDE, n. [weather and tide.] The tide which sets against the lee side of a ship, impelling her to the windward.
WEATHER-WISE, a. [weather and wise.] Skillful in foreseeing the changes or state of the weather.
WEATHER-WISER, n. Something that foreshows the weather. [Not used.]
WEATHERED, pp. Passed to the windward; passed with difficulty.
WEATHERING, ppr. Passing or sailing to the windward; passing with difficulty.
WEAVE, v.t. pret. wove; pp. woven, wove. The regular form, weaved, is rarely or never used. [G., Gr.]
1. To unite threads of any kind in such a manner as to form cloth. This is done by crossing the threads by means of a shuttle. The modes of weaving, and the kinds of texture, are various. The threads first laid in length are called the warp; those which cross them in the direction of the breadth, are called the weft or woof.
2. To unite any thing flexible; as, to weave twigs.
3. To unite by intermixture or close connection; as a form of religion woven into the civil government.
4. To interpose; to insert.
This weaves itself perforce into my business.
WEAVE, v.i. To practice weaving; to work with a loom.
WEAVER, n.
1. One who weaves; one whose occupation is to weave.
2. The common name of the genus Ploceus, of several species, natives of Africa and the East Indies; so called because they construct curious and often pensile nests, by interweaving twigs and fibers.
WEAVER-FISH, n. A kind of fish, [L.] [See Weever.]
WEAVING, ppr. Forming cloth by intertexture of threads.
WEAVING, n.
1. The act or art of forming cloth in a loom, by the union or intertexture of threads.
2. The task or work to be done in making cloth.
WEB, n. [See Weave.]
1. Texture of threads; plexus; any thing woven. Penelope devised a web to deceive her wooers.
2. Locally, a piece of linen cloth.
3. A dusky film that forms over the eye and hinders the sight; suffusion.
4. Some part of a sword. Qu. Net-work of the handle or hilt.
5. In ship-building, the thin partition on the inside of the rim, and between the spokes of a sheave.
6. In ornithology, the membrane which unites the toes of many water-fowls.
Spiders web, a plexus of very delicate threads or filaments which a spider spins from its bowels, and which serves as a net to catch flies or other insects for its food.
Web of a coulter, is the thin sharp part.
WEBBED, a. [from web.] Having the toes united by a membrane, or web; as the webbed feet of aquatic fowls.
WEB-FOOTED, a. [web and foot.] Having webbed feet; palmiped. A goose, or duck, is a web-footed fowl.
WED, v.t. [L., to give bail; a league; probably both are of one family.]
1. To marry; to take for a husband or for wife.
--Since the day I saw thee first, and wedded thee.
2. To join in marriage.
And Adam, wedded to another Eve, shall live with her--
3. To unite closely in affection; to attach firmly. WE are apt to be wedded to our own customs and opinions.
Men are wedded to their lusts.
4. To unite for ever.
Thou art wedded to calamity.
5. To espouse; to take part with.
They wedded his cause.
WED, v.i. To marry; to contract matrimony.
When shall I wed?
WED, n. A pledge.
WEDDED, pp. Married; closely attached.
WEDDING, ppr. Marrying; uniting with in matrimony.
WEDDING, n. Marriage; nuptials; nuptial ceremony; nuptial festivities.
Let her beauty be her wedding dower.
WEDDING-CLOTHES, n. [wedding and clothes.] Garments for a bride or a bridegroom, to be worn at marriage.
WEDDING-DAY, n. [wedding and day.] The day of marriage.
WEDDING-FEAST, n. [wedding and feast.] A feast or entertainment prepared for the guests at a wedding.
WEDGE, n. [This word signifies a mass, a lump.]
1. A mass of metal; as a wedge of gold or silver. Joshua 7:21.
2. A piece of metal, particularly iron, thick at one end and sloping to a thin edge at the other, used in splitting wood, rocks, etc. This is one of the five mechanical powers. A like piece of wood is by some persons called a wedge, or a glut.
3. Something in the form of a wedge. Sometimes bodies of troops are drawn up in the form of a wedge.
WEDGE, v.t.
1. To cleave with a wedge; to rive. [Little used.]
2. To drive as a wedge is drive; to crowd or compress closely. We were wedged in by the crowd.
3. To force, as a wedge forces its way; as, to wedge ones way.
4. To fasten with a wedge or with wedges; as, to wedge on a sythe; to wedge in a rail or a piece of timber.
5. To fix in the manner of a wedge.
Wedgd in the rocky shoals, and sticking fast.