right of way

or right-of-way

See synonyms for right of way on Thesaurus.com
noun,plural rights of way, right of ways.
  1. a common law or statutory right granted to a vehicle, as an airplane or boat, to proceed ahead of another.

  2. a path or route that may lawfully be used.

  1. a right of passage, as over another's land.

  2. the strip of land acquired for use by a railroad for tracks.

  3. land covered by a public road.

  4. land over which a power line passes.

  5. Fencing. the right to attack or continue an attack, and thus to be credited with a hit, by virtue of having first extended the sword arm or having parried the opponent's attack.

Origin of right of way

1
First recorded in 1760–70

Words Nearby right of way

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024

How to use right of way in a sentence

  • We had a clear right-of-way, however, and reached Edinburgh before nine o'clock.

  • If he was having trouble over his right-of-way, his recourse was to the law, and he took the law into his own hands.

    The Wreckers | Francis Lynde
  • Railroads cause fires by their locomotives sending out sparks through the smokestack or dropping hot ashes along the right-of-way.

    Our National Forests | Richard H. Douai Boerker
  • He made a jump off the right-of-way, and as the handcar flashed by he watched its flight from the covert of a weed tangle.

    The Escape of Mr. Trimm | Irvin S. Cobb
  • They could not pass it on the river, and Archer would not yield his right-of-way at Moores Rapids.

    The Boss of Wind River | David Goodger (goodger@python.org)

British Dictionary definitions for right of way

right of way

nounplural rights of way
  1. the right of one vehicle or vessel to take precedence over another, as laid down by law or custom

    • the legal right of someone to pass over another's land, acquired by grant or by long usage

    • the path or road used by this right

  1. US the strip of land over which a power line, railway line, road, etc, extends

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Other Idioms and Phrases with right of way

right of way

The right of one person or vehicle to travel over another's property, as in The new owner doesn't like it, but hikers have had the right of way through these woods for decades. [Mid-1700s]

The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.