waymakern.

?c1475 Catholicon Anglicum (BL Add. 15562) f. 135 A Waymaker or mender, importator, reparator viarum.

1609 Pells Order Bk. (P.R.O.: E 403/2728) f. 228 To Thomas Norton his Ma^ties waymaker appointed to oversee the performance of the mending of the high waies..xxix li. x s.

1747 Three Disc. in J. Trapp Explanatory Notes Old Test. & Acts of Apostles ii. 34 Those words..plainly refer to the known Custom of Kings, and great Potentates, who, when they travell'd, sent before them their ὁδοποιοὶ, as they were call'd, Way-makers, to mend the Roads.

1849 J. Thompson Hist. Leicester 325 All the attendants upon the queen, from the gentleman usher to the porter, and even the way-maker, were presented with fees.

1885 M. J. Boon National Paper Money, & its Use (LSE Sel. Pamphlets) 44 They [sc. the Romans] kept a constant army of way makers, as they were called, to keep their military roads in good order.

1923 E. K. Chambers Elizabethan Stage I. iv. 116 The payment of fees to the queen's waymaker for inspecting the roads.

1962 G. P. V. Akrigg Jacobean Pageant xiv. 166 Gratuities were paid to the Knight Marshal, the royal harbingers, the King's way-maker, and the other royal officials whose co-operation the city needed.

2005 W. Leahy Elizabethan Triumphal Processions ii. 59 The space through which the procession was to pass was not prepared, other than having the royal Waymaker study the roads earlier in the year.

1574 T. Newton tr. G. Gratarolo Direct. Health Magistrates & Studentes T j b Sleepe at noone..is a foremessanger or way-maker [L. praeparet] to Feuers, Apostumations, and Abscesses.

c1614 Sir C. Cornwallis in J. Gutch Collectanea Curiosa (1781) I. 139 Which match, I conceived, had been a preparation, and a way-maker to this other.

1634 Bp. J. Hall Contempl. Hist. New Test. (STC 12640.5) 117 What was his [sc. John Baptist's] errand, but to be the way-maker unto Christ?

1676 C. Phelpes Caveat against Drunkenness 60 This is an heavy Judgment in it self, and the fore-runner, and way-maker for greater, and more dreadful to come.

1706 tr. E. Y. Ides Three Years Trav. Moscow to China xiv. 67 There were several of the Emperours Boschy or Way-makers, appointed to make way for our passage.

1876 Musical Times 17 690 All these associations of Haydn's with the musical way-makers of the past century.

1887 Jrnl. Hellenic Stud. 8 348 Praxiteles has become the truest interpreter and the chief waymaker of a new epoch.

1926 S. P. Sherman Crit. Woodcuts xviii. 241 James and Howells, who are, of course, the real way-makers of our realistic fiction.

1996 J. Hopler Killing Spirit (Electronic ed.) Introd. It [sc. religion] is portrayed as either a nebulous waymaker to sloppiness and imprecision, or a random malevolent force.

2008 Harvard Law Rev. 122 50 Judges, however, are not just teachers. They are waymakers, scouts, and guides.