Nominal Forms
Infinitive: to waylay
Participle: waylaid
Gerund: waylaying
Cognates
-
Indicative
Present
| I | waylay |
| you | waylay |
| he;she;it | waylays |
| we | waylay |
| you | waylay |
| they | waylay |
Perfect
| I | have waylaid |
| you | have waylaid |
| he;she;it | has waylaid |
| we | have waylaid |
| you | have waylaid |
| they | have waylaid |
Past
| I | waylaid |
| you | waylaid |
| he;she;it | waylaid |
| we | waylaid |
| you | waylaid |
| they | waylaid |
Pluperfect
| I | had waylaid |
| you | had waylaid |
| he;she;it | had waylaid |
| we | had waylaid |
| you | had waylaid |
| they | had waylaid |
Future
| I | will waylay |
| you | will waylay |
| he;she;it | will waylay |
| we | will waylay |
| you | will waylay |
| they | will waylay |
Future Perfect
| I | will have waylaid |
| you | will have waylaid |
| he;she;it | will have waylaid |
| we | will have waylaid |
| you | will have waylaid |
| they | will have waylaid |
Subjunctive
Present
| I | waylay |
| you | waylay |
| he;she;it | waylay |
| we | waylay |
| you | waylay |
| they | waylay |
Perfect
| I | have waylaid |
| you | have waylaid |
| he;she;it | have waylaid |
| we | have waylaid |
| you | have waylaid |
| they | have waylaid |
Imperfect
| I | waylaid |
| you | waylaid |
| he;she;it | waylaid |
| we | waylaid |
| you | waylaid |
| they | waylaid |
Pluperfect
| I | had waylaid |
| you | had waylaid |
| he;she;it | had waylaid |
| we | had waylaid |
| you | had waylaid |
| they | had waylaid |
Conditional
Present
| I | would waylay |
| you | would waylay |
| he;she;it | would waylay |
| we | would waylay |
| you | would waylay |
| they | would waylay |
Perfect
| I | would have waylaid |
| you | would have waylaid |
| he;she;it | would have waylaid |
| we | would have waylaid |
| you | would have waylaid |
| they | would have waylaid |
Imperative
| you | waylay |
| we | Let's waylay |
| you | waylay |
Verbs conjugated like 'waylay'
againsay,
appay,
assay,
belay,
enlay,
forelay,
foresay,
forlay,
forsay,
gainsay,
inlay,
interlay,
lay,
mislay,
mispay,
missay,
outlay,
outstay,
overlay,
overpay, etc. (List truncated at 20 verbs)
Verbs similar to 'waylay'
allay,
naysay,
parlay,
warray,
abray,
alloy,
ally,
amay,
apay,
appay,
Additional Information
Phrasal Verbs
Etymology
1. "to ambush," 1513, from way + lay (v.), on model of M.L.G., M.Du.
wegelagen "besetting of ways, lying in wait with evil or hostile intent along public ways."
2. From way + lay, likely a calque of Middle Dutch wegelagen (“besetting of ways, lying in wait with evil or hostile intent along public ways”). Compare Middle Low German wegelagen, German wegelagern (“to waylay; rob”). See: German, old spelling '
wegelagern'.
Sample Sentences
-
Oh, youthful benefactress! how often in succeeding years, standing in solitary places, and thinking of thee with grief of heart and perfect love—how often have I wished that, as in ancient times, the curse of a father was believed to have a supernatural power, and to pursue its object with a fatal necessity of self-fulfilment; even so the benediction of a heart oppressed with gratitude might have a like prerogative, might have power given to it from above to chase, to haunt, to waylay, to overtake, to pursue thee into the central darkness of a London brothel, or (if it were possible) into the darkness of the grave, there to awaken thee with an authentic message of peace and forgiveness, and of final reconciliation! [1821, Thomas De Quincey, Confessions of an English Opium-Eater:]
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I, their host, often waylay them and try to commune with them; but always they glide past me. And how gracefully they glide, these ghosts! It is a pleasure to watch them. It is a lesson in deportment. May they never be laid! Of all my household-pets, they are the dearest to me. [1911 October 26, Max Beerbohm, Zuleika Dobson, or, An Oxford Love Story, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: John Lane Company, published 1912, →OCLC:]
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And when some of the friends, the ones who came every day, waylaid the doctor in the corridor, Stephen was the one who asked the most informed questions, who’d been keeping up not just with the stories that appeared several times a week in the Times […] [1986 November 24, Susan Sontag, “The Way We Live Now”, in The New Yorker:]