Word.ws English Dictionary

in the family way

in the family way prepositional phrase: pregnant.

Prepositional phrase

  1. (euphemistic) Pregnant.
    • However, after they had lived in this way for some time, Mrs Leeson, to her own surprise and that of everybody else, found herself in the family way, and was brought to bed of as lovely a little boy as eyes ever looked upon.1842, Catherine Crowe, Susan Hopley, Or, The Adventures of a Maid-servant
    • Back on the veranda he said to Lace gravely, "I do believe that poor child's in the family way." Lace, tracing the pattern of the matting with his boot, husked, and murmured, "Yes — I think so.1938, Xavier Herbert, chapter XI, in Capricornia, New York: D. Appleton-Century, published 1943, page 181
    Synonyms:
    in a family way

in the family way meaning in Tamil

in the family way in Tamil

pregnant
வாயும் வயிறுமாக vāyum vayiṟumāka

Synonyms of in the family way

Questions about in the family way

What does in the family way mean?
In the family way means pregnant.
What is in the family way in Tamil?
In the family way in Tamil is வாயும் வயிறுமாக (vāyum vayiṟumāka). See In the family way meaning in Tamil.
What part of speech is in the family way?
In the family way is a prepositional phrase.

Words near in the family way in the dictionary

  1. in the extreme
  2. in the eye of the wind
  3. in the eyes of
  4. in the eyes of the law
  5. in the face of
  6. in the family way
  7. in the fast lane
  8. in the field
  9. in the final analysis
  10. in the first instance
  11. in the first place

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: in the family way (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-in the family way.wav.

Cite this entry: “in the family way.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/in_the_family_way. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.