way-goingadj.
/ˈweɪɡəʊɪŋ/, U.S. /ˈweɪˌɡoʊɪŋ/, Scottish English /ˈweɡoɪŋ/ Chiefly Scottish.
1. Departing, leaving, going away; esp. designating an outgoing tenant (cf. waygoing crop n. at waygoing n. Compounds 2).
ΘΚΠ
the world > movement > motion in a certain direction > going away > [adjective]
parting1562
away-going1709
departing1751
way-going1778
off-going1861
going1883
1778 Ess. Divided Commons i. 14 We have too often seen the most irregular steps taken, and villainous practices committed by a waygoing tenant.
1812 J. Sinclair Acct. Syst. Husbandry Scotl. ii. 62 Much depends on the conditions obligatory on the way-going tenant.
1845 R. Hunter Landlord & Tenant Index Waygoing tenant's right to value of fallow land.
1872 Farmer's Mag. May 383/1 The securing of a paying price for the waygoing young cattle.
1906 V. B. Woolley Pract. Civil Actions & Proc. Law Courts Delaware ix. 418 The examination..of a way-going witness, before he departs.
1954 D. Mackenzie Farmer in W. Isles 156 The way-going tenant is in as good a position.
1997 Lord Gill Law Agric. Holdings in Scotl. 246 The holding might be made subject to a charge at the instance of the waygoing tenant under section 75.
2. Scottish. poetic. Fading, dying.Chiefly in translations of Psalm 23.
ΘΚΠ
the world > existence and causation > existence > non-existence > [adjective] > ceasing to exist
vanishing1434
way-going1871
1871 P. H. Waddell Psalms frae Hebrew xxiii. 3 He waukens my wa'-gaen saul.
1927 E. S. Rae Hansel fae Hame 43 And as I gaed I saw a sicht, Sae waefu' in the wa'-gawn licht.
a1978 A. S. Borrowman Buik o Ruth & Ither Wark in Lallans (1979) (Psalms 23:3) 38 Ma wa-gaen saul He waukens up In roddins richt tae spail.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, December 2015; most recently modified version published online December 2021).
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adj.1778