Waylay

Definition: Waylay

Waylay

Verb

1. Wait in hiding to attack.

Date "waylay" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1600. (references)

Note: Waylay \Way"lay`\, transitive verb. [imperative past participle Waylaid; present participle verb or noun Waylaying.]. (Websters 1913)

Synonyms: Waylay

Synonyms: ambuscade (v), ambush (v), bushwhack (v), lie in wait (v), lurk (v), scupper (v). (additional references)

Context	Synonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus).
Cunning	Verb: be cunning; Adjective: have cut one's eyeteeth; contrive; (plan); live by one's wits; maneuver; intrigue, gerrymander, finesse, double, temporize, stoop to conquer, reculer pour mieux sauter, circumvent, steal a march upon; overreach; throw off one's guard; surprise; snatch a verdict; waylay, undermine, introduce the thin end of the wedge; play a deep game, play tricks with; ambiguas in vulgum spargere voces; flatter, make things pleasant; have an ax to grind.
Deception	Decoy, waylay, lure, beguile, delude, inveigle; entrap, intrap, ensnare; nick, springe; set a trap, lay a trap, lay a snare for; bait the hook, forelay, spread the toils, lime; trapan, trepan; kidnap; let in, hook in; nousle, nousel; blind a trail; enmesh, immesh; shanghai; catch, catch in a trap; sniggle, entangle, illaqueate, hocus, escamoter, practice on one's credulity; hum, humbug; gammon, stuff up, sell; play a trick upon one, play a practical joke upon one, put something over on one, put one over on; balk, trip up, throw a tub to a whale; fool to the top of one's bent, send on a fool's errand; make game, make a fool of, make an April fool of, make an ass of; trifle with, cajole, flatter; come over; (influence); gild the pill, make things pleasant, divert, put a good face upon; dissemble.
Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus.

Crosswords: Waylay

English words defined with "waylay": Forelay ♦ Waylaid, Waylaying. (references)

Specialty definitions using "waylay": Wise as the Women of Mungret. (references)

Title	Author	Quote
Sylvie and Bruno Concluded	Carroll, Lewis	Any College, that wished to secure some specially clever young man, had to waylay him at the Station, and hunt him through the streets.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references.

"Waylay" is generally used as a lexical verb (infinitive) -- approximately 75.00% of the time. "Waylay" is used about 16 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted)

Parts of Speech	Percent	Usage per 100 Million Words	Rank in English
Lexical Verb (infinitive)	75%	12	101,599
Lexical Verb (base form)	18.75%	3	202,518
Noun (singular)	6.25%	1	339,140
Total	100.00%	16	N/A

The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com.

Language		Translations for "waylay"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses.
Albanian		sulmoj (assail, assault, attack, attempt, charge, dog, fall on, fall to, fly at, gain ground, gun for, harass, hit, hold up, jump, lace into, lash, light into, mug, oppugn, raid), ndal në rrugë, mësyj (assault, attack, beset, charge, pelt, storm), i zë pritë (ambush, lay for). (various references)

Arabic		‏كمن (ambuscade, ambush, dwell, lie in wait, position, reside, smolder, smoulder), ‏هاجم من مكمن (ambuscade), ‏قطع الطريق (across the road, commit in highway robbery). (various references)

Bulgarian		устройвам засада на, причаквам, дебна (ambush, be on the lurk, be on the prowl, mouse, prowl, shadow, skulk, slink about, sneak, stalk, trail, watch). (various references)

Czech		vyèíhat si (Nick), přepadnout (assail, assault, mug, raid, steal, stick up, swoop). (various references)

Farsi		کمین کردن (Ambush, Lurk, Stalk), خف کردن , درکمین کسی نشستن . (various references)

French		intercepter, attaquer, assaillir, arrêter au passage. (various references)

German		auflauern (ambuscade, bushwhack, lie in wait for, set a trap, set a trap for, to ambuscade, to bushwhack). (various references)

Greek		ενεδρεύω (ambuscade, ambush, lie in wait, lurk, skulk, snoop). (various references)

Hebrew		לארוב ולשדוד, לצדות (ambush, lie in wait, lurk). (various references)

Hungarian		kirabol (loot, plunder, ransack, Rob, to burglarize, to despoil, to futz, to harry, to heist, to hold up, to loot, to mug, to pill, to pirate, to rifle, to rob, to sack, to spoil), úton orvul megtámad. (various references)

Indonesian		ngadang-adangi (hold up, intercept, mooch), menghentikan, menghadang, cegat (flag down, hail, hold up). (various references)

Italian		tendere un agguato a. (various references)

Manx		lhie cooyl chlea (ambuscade, lurk), cheet roish (come along, come before, forestall, outflank, prelude). (various references)

Pig Latin		aylayway

Portuguese		preparar cilada, espiar (keek, kike, peach-coloured, peek, peep, pry, spy, spy on), atacar de surpresa. (various references)

Romanian		pândi (ambush, lie by for, lie in wait for, lurk, spy, watch), ţine calea cuiva. (various references)

Russian		подстерегать (lie in wait, waylaid), перехватить на пути. (various references)

Serbo-Croatian		napasti iz zasede (ambush). (various references)

Spanish		acechar (ambush, bushwhack, lie in wait, look, set a trap, set a trap for, spy, threaten, watch). (various references)

Swedish		ligga i försåt för. (various references)

Turkish		pusuya yatmak (ambuscade, ambush, couch, lie in wait, lie in wait for, lurk), pusu kurmak (be in ambush for smb., lay a wait for, lay an ambush, lie in ambush for smb., lie in wait for). (various references)

Ukranian		зупинити (rein back, rein in), блокувати (block, block up, blockade, cordon, obstruct, seal, stop), підстерігати. (various references)

Welsh		rhagod (ambush, hinder, meet). (various references)
Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references.

Derivations
	Words beginning with "waylay": waylayer, waylayers, waylaying, waylays. (additional references)
Misspellings
	"Waylay" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: Bwayla, daylay, maylay, saylac, waya, wayle, Waylon. (additional references)
Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references).

# of Phoneme Matches	Pronunciation	Word(s) rhyming with "waylay" (pronounced wā"lā')
3	-ā" l ā'	melee.
Source: compiled by the editor (additional references); see credits.

Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams
	Words within the letters "a-a-l-w-y-y"
	-1 letter: alway.
	-2 letters: away, waly, yawl.
	-3 letters: aal, ala, awa, awl, law, lay, way, yaw, yay.
	-4 letters: aa, al, aw, ay, la, ya.
	Words containing the letters "a-a-l-w-y-y"
	+1 letter: flyaway, layaway, waylays.
	+2 letters: alleyway, flyaways, layaways, waylayer.
	+3 letters: alleyways, waylayers, waylaying, waywardly.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro.