Word.ws English Dictionary

in the way of

in the way of preposition: in relation to; in connection with; with respect to.

Preposition

in the way of

  1. (idiomatic) In relation to; in connection with; with respect to.
    • He had seen Death many times, - met him in the way of trade, and got acquainted with him.1851 June – 1852 April, Harriet Beecher Stowe, chapter 12, in Uncle Tom’s Cabin; or, Life among the Lowly, volume (please specify |volume=I or II), Boston, Mass.: John P[unchard] Jewett & Company...
    • Of what that involves in the way of doctrine I have no idea nor the time to inform myself.1879, Robert Louis Stevenson, chapter 13, in Travels with a Donkey in the Cévennes, 1st American edition, Boston, Mass.: Roberts Brothers, →OCLC
  2. (idiomatic) In or into a position of being likely to obtain, to attain, or to achieve.
    • The King sought out the farmer who had been branded and sold as a slave . . . and put him in the way of a comfortable livelihood.1881, Mark Twain [pseudonym; Samuel Langhorne Clemens], chapter 34, in The Prince and the Pauper: A Tale for Young People of All Ages, Montreal, Que.: Dawson Brothers, →OCLC
    • But it would certainly put her in the way of a grand marriage.1891, Thomas Hardy, chapter IV, in Tess of the d’Urbervilles: A Pure Woman Faithfully Presented […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), London: James R[ipley] Osgood, McIlvaine and Co., […]...
  3. (idiomatic) Similar to; as an instance of; as a kind of.
    • "My dear young friend, rely upon my doing my little all in your absence, by keeping the fact before the mind of Joseph.—Joseph!" said Mr. Pumblechook, in the way of a compassionate adjuration.1860 December – 1861 August, Charles Dickens, chapter XIX, in Great Expectations […], volume I, London: Chapman and Hall, […], published October 1861, →OCLC, page 328
    • I don't think there's anything in the way of a haircut or a shave or a shampoo that could make me like my girl any less.1906, O. Henry, The Gift Of The Magi
  4. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see in the way, of.

Examples of in the way of in a sentence

  • Certainly their extracurricular talents in the way of sport have not gone unnoticed.2011 September 2, Sonia van Gilder Cooke, “Harvard's a Bargain — If You're From the U.K.”, in Time:
  • I am in the way of knowing that one of you will not reach your destination, but I don’t know which will be the one to fall.1990, Stephen King, chapter 59, in The Stand:

Questions about in the way of

What does in the way of mean?
In the way of means in relation to; in connection with; with respect to.
How do you use in the way of in a sentence?
Certainly their extracurricular talents in the way of sport have not gone unnoticed.
What part of speech is in the way of?
In the way of is a preposition.

Words near in the way of in the dictionary

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

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: in the way of (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.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-au-in the way of.ogg.

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