out of the way
out of the way adjective: unusual or out of the ordinary. Also the alternative form of out-of-the-way.
Adjective
out of the way (comparative more out of the way, superlative most out of the way)
Adverb
out of the way (comparative more out of the way, superlative most out of the way)
- Unusually or excessively.
- 'I'm not an out of the way nervous woman.'1934, Agatha Christie, chapter 14, in Murder on the Orient Express, London: HarperCollins, published 2017, page 176
Prepositional phrase
- So as not to obstruct or hinder; not in the way.
- Please move your bike out of the way.
- I was elbowed out of the way by the bouncer.
- Taken care of; handled.
- Now that the main problems are out of the way, we can start working on the details.
Also used as
out of the way is also the alternative form of out-of-the-way.
Forms of out of the way
| Adjective | |
|---|---|
| comparative | more out of the way |
| superlative | most out of the way |
| Adverb | |
| comparative | more out of the way |
| superlative | most out of the way |
Questions about out of the way
- What does out of the way mean?
- Out of the way means unusual or out of the ordinary.
- What part of speech is out of the way?
- Out of the way can be an adjective, an adverb or a prepositional phrase.
Words near out of the way in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: out of the 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.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-au-out of the way.ogg.
Cite this entry: “out of the way.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/out_of_the_way. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.