waylaid
ˈwā-ˌlād 
; waylaying; waylays
; waylaying; waylays
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
Charles Dickens2
: 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
Meridel Le SueurI 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
Oliver SacksExamples 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
In one video that drew more than 700,000 views, Vargas waylaid ICE agents who were about to transport an elderly man to a detention center.
—Thomas Westerholm, MSNBC Newsweek, 18 July 2025
But what was expected to pass the lower chamber with relative ease on July 17 has been waylaid by other, unrelated legislative debates, including growing calls to release the Jeffrey Epstein case files.
—Savannah Kuchar, USA Today, 18 July 2025
Then again, Joel also waylaid band members (like drummer Liberty DeVitto, still somewhat embittered about the way he was cast aside during the making of River of Dreams) and loyal producer, Phil Ramone, after deciding to move on from them later in his life.
—David Browne, Rolling Stone, 18 July 2025
During the years following the mail bomb threat, Harold had also begun an intensive self-defence training regimen partly as a way of waylaying his debilitating state of constant paranoia.
—Hazlitt, 18 June 2025
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Thomas Westerholm, MSNBC Newsweek, 18 July 2025
But what was expected to pass the lower chamber with relative ease on July 17 has been waylaid by other, unrelated legislative debates, including growing calls to release the Jeffrey Epstein case files.
—Savannah Kuchar, USA Today, 18 July 2025
Then again, Joel also waylaid band members (like drummer Liberty DeVitto, still somewhat embittered about the way he was cast aside during the making of River of Dreams) and loyal producer, Phil Ramone, after deciding to move on from them later in his life.
—David Browne, Rolling Stone, 18 July 2025
During the years following the mail bomb threat, Harold had also begun an intensive self-defence training regimen partly as a way of waylaying his debilitating state of constant paranoia.
—Hazlitt, 18 June 2025
See All Example Sentences for waylay
Cite this Entry
“Waylay.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/waylay. Accessed 29 Jul. 2025.
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