straightway

Meanings

1. 1
   adv

   immediately or without delay, now chiefly literary or archaic

   Straightway the messenger returned to the palace with the news.

2. 2
   adv

   directly, in a straight course

   The loose stone fell straightway to the ravine below.

A compound of straight + way, recorded in late Middle English. Its earliest sense was 'in a direct course.' The temporal sense 'at once, without delay' developed from the same idea of proceeding directly, and is now mainly literary or archaic.

Topics