on the way

• Audio (AU)

  (file)

on the way

1. (idiomatic) Coming; approaching.

   Don't panic! Reinforcements are on the way.

   • 2020, Bob Dylan, Murder Most Foul:

     Don't worry, Mr. President, help's on the way
     Your brothers are comin', there'll be hell to pay

2. Heading to a certain place.

   We are on our way to the train station.

3. On the direct route that one intends to travel.

   I can drop you at the station, as it is on my way home.

4. On one's way.
5. While travelling.
   • 1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter V, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC:

     We expressed our readiness, and in ten minutes were in the station wagon, rolling rapidly down the long drive, for it was then after nine. We passed on the way the van of the guests from Asquith.

   • 1918 September–November, Edgar Rice Burroughs, “The Land That Time Forgot”, in The Blue Book Magazine, Chicago, Ill.: Story-press Corp., →OCLC; republished as chapter V, in Hugo Gernsback, editor, Amazing Stories, (please specify |part=I, II, or III), New York, N.Y.: Experimenter Publishing, 1927, →OCLC:

     We gathered up what was left of the red deer after skinning and cleaning it, and set out upon our return journey toward the U-boat. On the way Olson, von Schoenvorts and I discussed the needs of our immediate future, and we were unanimous in placing foremost the necessity of a permanent camp on shore.