Wayfare
noun, verb ·Uncommon ·College level
Definitions
- 1 Travel, journeying. archaic, uncountable
"What frightens and disgusts me is those fearful letters from those who have been long dead, to those who linger on their wayfare through this valley of tears."
- 1 To make a journey; to travel. archaic, intransitive
"A certain Laconian as he way-fared, came unto a place where there dwelt an old friend an hoſt of his, who the firſt day, of purpoſe avoided him, and was out of the way, becauſe he was not minded to lodge him; […]"
Example
More examples"What frightens and disgusts me is those fearful letters from those who have been long dead, to those who linger on their wayfare through this valley of tears."
Etymology
From Middle English weyfaren, originally in participle form weyfarand, from Old English weġfarende (“wayfaring”), equivalent to way + faring. Cognate with Danish vejfarende (“wayfaring”), Swedish vägfarande, German wegfahren (“to drive away”), Icelandic vegfarandi (“wayfaring”). More at way, fare.
More for "wayfare"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.