Word.ws English Dictionary

in the way

in the way prepositional phrase: obstructing, blocking, or hindering.

Prepositional phrase

  1. (idiomatic) Obstructing, blocking, or hindering.
    • I really wanted a clear photo of the president, but all the journalists were in the way.
    • The pre-grouping railway managements were very chary about allowing other people's trains on their territory, and there were many instances where running powers granted by Act of Parliament were never actually excercised because of difficulties deliberately put in the way.1955 July, R. S. McNaught, “"Foreign" Engine Workings”, in Railway Magazine, page 497
  2. (dated) Around; present; able to be found.
    • First thing on the Monday morning, I went to the haberdasher's shop, opposite Mr. Trinkle's, the great upholsterer's in Cheapside. "Mr. Phibbs in the way?"1850 September 14, [Charles Dickens], “Three “Detective” Anecdotes”, in Charles Dickens, editor, Household Words. A Weekly Journal., volume I, number 25, London: Office, […], →OCLC

in the way meaning in Tamil, Marathi and Bengali

in the way in Tamil

அப்படி

in the way in Marathi

in the way
आड āḍ

in the way in Bengali

বাধা দেওয়া, পথরোধ করা, আশেপাশে, উপস্থিত, খুঁজে পাওয়া যায় এমন

Synonyms of in the way

Questions about in the way

What does in the way mean?
In the way means obstructing, blocking, or hindering.
What is in the way in Tamil?
In the way in Tamil is அப்படி. See In the way meaning in Tamil.
What part of speech is in the way?
In the way is a prepositional phrase.

Words near in the way in the dictionary

  1. in the twinkling of an eye
  2. in the valley of the blind, the one-eyed man is king
  3. in the vein of
  4. in the wake of
  5. in the wars
  6. in the way
  7. in the way of
  8. in the weeds
  9. in the wild
  10. in the wind
  11. in the wind's eye

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: in the way (page history and authors); in the way (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); आड (Marathi) (page history and authors); in the way (Bengali Wiktionary) (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: En-au-in the way.ogg.

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