gather way

English

Pronunciation

Audio (AU) (file)

Verb

gather way

(nautical, idiomatic) To begin to move; to move with increasing speed; to get headway by sail or steam so as to answer the helm.

Part or all of this entry has been imported from the 1913 edition of Webster’s Dictionary, which is now free of copyright and hence in the public domain. The imported definitions may be significantly out of date, and any more recent senses may be completely missing.
(See the entry for gather way in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.)