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wayside

UK/ˈweɪsaɪd/US/ˈweɪsaɪd/
nounC1Rare in speech; mostly a word you read · #12,418 of 15,258leans written

Other forms: waysides

The wayside is the edge of a road. Fall by the wayside, a wayside inn.

To fall by the wayside means to drop out before the end, and it comes from a biblical parable. A wayside chapel or inn is one standing beside a road rather than in any settlement.

Mr. Matté (if there is an issue with this image, contact me using this image's Commons talk page, my Commons user talk page, or my English Wikipedia user talk page; I'll know about it a lot faster) · CC BY 4.0

Definitions of wayside

  1. 1nounwaysideThe edge of a road, especially in the phrase about falling by it.C1

    “Two of the four projects fell by the wayside in the first year.”

wayside is a place.

Where it comes from

Middle English way plus side, meaning simply the side of the way.

  1. Middle English

    waye syde

  2. English, today

    wayside

From Middle English waye syde, equivalent to way + side.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practise this word

wayside in the wild

  • Administered by the Oregon Parks and Recreation Department, the day-use wayside covers about 76 acres.

    Alderwood State Wayside

  • The wayside is administered by the Oregon Parks and Recreation Department but was closed to vehicular traffic in 2007 because of ongoing problems with criminal activity.

    Holman State Wayside

  • In rail transport, a wayside horn is an audible signal used at level crossings.

    Wayside horn

  • Such railroad crossings may still require the traditional bells as part of the crossing signals in addition to the wayside horns.

    Wayside horn

  • A wayside cross is a cross by a footpath, track or road, at an intersection, along the edge of a field or in a forest.

    Wayside cross

From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.