WordWealth: waylay

way·lay , v.t., -laid, -lay·ing.

1. to intercept or attack from ambush, as in order to rob, seize, or slay. 2. to await and accost unexpectedly: The actor was waylaid by a swarm of admirers.

[1505–15; WAY1 + LAY1, after MLG, MD wegelagen to lie in wait, deriv. of wegelage a lying in wait]

—waylayer, n. (Random House Websters Unabridged). Look at Thesaurus

Nato today announced plans to send 8,000 ground troops to Albania to provide "military support" for the humanitarian aid effort for Kosovan refugees there, amid reports that Serb forces are waylaying refugees and herding them back to Kosovo, possibly for use as human shields.—— Nato to Send 8,000 Ground Troops to Albania; Guardian; April 8, 1999; Soldiers to bolster humanitarian aid effort as Serbs herd refugees back to Kosovo

But as the time approached, the old man determined that he would waylay Mr. Dickens in some of the passages of the hotel, and the last I saw of him he was standing round a corner in the hall, his bosom and pockets bursting with written and printed matter.... Mr. Dickens ... expressed the greatest pity for the poor old man. "God help him, poor fellow!" said he.--(Story cont'd) If I turn into the street, I am followed by a multitude. If I stay at home, the house becomes, with callers, like a fair. If I visit a public institution with only one friend, the directors come down incontinently, waylay me in the yard, and address me in a long speech. I go to a party in the evening, and am so inclosed and hemmed about with people, stand where I will, that I am exhausted from want of air.—— The Public and Private Worlds of Charles Dickens; The Atlantic; April 26, 2002
 

The women, who hold wicker baskets filled with flowers and incense, are out to waylay tourists and to entice them into buying the blooms and scents. —— Jacob Heilbrunn, "Mao More Than Ever," New Republic, April 21, 1997

Synonyms: ambush, assail, bushwhack, set upon.

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