Not now in colloquial use. Also 4 waiwerd, weiward, 4–5 weyward (4 -werd, 6 -warde), 4, 6 waywarde, 6–7 waiward (6 -warde), (7 waward). [Aphetic f. AWAYWARD. Cf. froward.
The word has prob. often been apprehended as a derivative of WAY sb.1, with the literal sense ‘bent on going one’s own way’; this notion seems to have influenced the development of meaning.]
1. Disposed to go counter to the wishes or advice of others, or to what is reasonable; wrongheaded, intractable, self-willed; froward, perverse. Of children: Disobedient, refractory.
In recent use the sense is somewhat milder, and perhaps always with some mixture of 2. If applied to conduct deserving severe moral reprobation it would now be apprehended as euphemistic.
c. 1380. Wyclif, Wks. (1880), 376. As waiwerd clerkis wolden in seynt Austyns time haue done owte … þis worde of þe gospelle. Ibid. (1382), Matt. xvii. 16. A! thou generacioun vnbyleeful and weiward [Vulg. perversa].
c. 1425. Eng. Conq. Irel., 142. Folk so weyward & so vnredy.
c. 1475. Lament. Mary Magd., 237. Wherfore ye lyke tyrantes wode & waywarde Now haue him thus slayne for his rewarde.
1526. Pilgr. Perf. (W. de W., 1531), 20. Than he waxeth testy and weywarde, and for every tryfell is impacyent and angry.
1557. North, Gueuara’s Diall Pr., Gen. Prol. A ij. Many sorowes endureth the woman in nouryshyng a waywerde chylde.
1583. Stubbes, Anat. Abus., II. 102. [They] shewe them selues either wilfull, waiwarde, or maliciouslye blinde.
1583. Whitgift, Serm. (1589), C 6 b. The third kinde is of those that are conceited and wayward, who onely obey when they list, wherein they list, and so long as they list.
1590. Shaks., Com. Err., IV. iv. 4. My wife is in a wayward moode to day.
1651. Featly, Abel Rediv., Reinolds, 486. A waward Patient maketh a froward Physitian.
1830. D’Israeli, Chas. I., III. 97. Charles … used the wayward genius with all a brother’s tenderness.
1833. Tennyson, New Year’s Eve, 25. I have been wild and wayward, but you’ll forgive me now.
1840. Dickens, Old C. Shop, lxix. The wayward boy soon spurned the shelter of his roof, and sought associates more congenial to his tastes.
1894. Lady M. Verney, Verney Mem., III. 326. Sir Ralph treated the wayward girl with a courtesy to which her mother never condescended.
absol. 1581. J. Bell, Haddon’s Answ. Osor., 63 b. Here our old peevish wayward, piketh a new quarell agaynst me.
1582. N. T. (Rhem.), 1 Pet. ii. 18. Not only the good and modest, but also the waiward [Vulg. dyscolis].
1912. Spectator, 27 July, 135/2. The two together supply the unwise and the wayward with the necessary instructions.
† b. Of things personified. Also of conditions, natural agencies, etc.: Untoward. Obs.
1567. Turberv., Epit., etc., 80 b. When waywarde Winter spits his gall.
a. 1586. Sidney, Arcadia, III. xxix. § 1. What spiteful God … hath brought me to such a waywarde case, that neither thy death can be a reuenge, nor thy ouerthrow a victorie.
1608. Shaks., Pericles, IV. iv. 10. Pericles Is now againe thwarting thy wayward seas.
1718. Prior, Solomon, II. 803. My Coward Soul shall bear it’s wayward Fate.
1792. Mme. D’Arblay, Diary, April. This wayward month opened upon me with none of its smiles.
1821. Joanna Baillie, Metr. Leg., Ghost of Fadon, vii. We war with wayward fate.
† c. Of judgment: Perverse, wrong, unjust. Also of the eye: Perverted. Obs.
1382. Wyclif, Matt. vi. 33. Ȝif thyn eiȝe be weyward [Vulg. nequam]. Ibid., Hab. i. 4. Weywerd dom [Vulg. judicium perversum].
1551. Robinson, trans. More’s Utopia (1895), 40. Suche prowde, lewde, ouerthwarte, and waywarde iudgementes [L. superba, absurda ac morosa iudicia].
1668. Dryden, Dram. Poesy, 51. The wayward authority of an old man in his own house.
† d. Of words, actions, countenance: Indicating or manifesting obstinate self-will. Obs.
c. 1450–1530. Myrr. our Ladye, 44. An other he [the Evil One] sturreth to make som weywarde token.
1599. Sandys, Europæ Spec. (1632), 94. If a man should heap together all the cholerike speeches, all the way-ward actions, that ever scaped from him in his life.
1630. Pathomachia, I. iv. 8. From wayward words they passed on to bloody blowes.
1818. Scott, Rob Roy, xii. I shall never forget the diabolical sneer which writhed Rashleigh’s wayward features.
† e. Of a disease, etc.: Not yielding readily to treatment, obstinate. Obs.
1541. R. Copland, Galyen’s Terap., 2 F iv. By the occasyon of them the vlcere is waywarde and rebel to be healed.
2. Capriciously wilful; conforming to no fixed rule or principle of conduct; erratic.
a. 1533. Ld. Berners, Golden Bk. M. Aurel., Let. iv. (1537), 118 b. Our lyfe is so doubtefull, and fortune so waywarde, that she dothe not alway threate in strykynge, nor striketh in thretnynge.
1604. Dekker, Honest Wh., I. B 1. My longings are not wanton, but wayward.
1750. Gray, Elegy, 106. Hard by yon wood … Mutt’ring his wayward fancies he would rove.
1832. Wordsw., Loving & Liking, 44. Instinct is neither wayward nor blind.
1881. Jowett, Thucyd., I. 83. The movement of events is often as wayward and incomprehensible as the course of human thought.
b. transf. and fig. (of things).
1786. Burns, Brigs of Ayr, 51. He left his bed and took his wayward rout, And down by Simpsons wheel’d the left about.
1799. Wordsw., Poems Imag., x. 28. In many a secret place Where rivulets dance their wayward round.
1817. Scott, Harold, II. xv. Thus muttering, to the door she bent Her wayward steps.
18[?]. Smithson, Usef. Bk. Farmers, 32 (Cassell). Send its rough wayward roots in all directions.
1905. C. T. C. Gaz., June, 254/1. The wayward hoop is a fruitful cause of those accidents for which no one except the victim gets punished.
