right of way
10
3.9
- noun
- /raɪt əv weɪ/
:
prioridad de paso
- At the intersection, cars must stop for pedestrians because they have the right of way.
- railroad right-of-way
- highway right-of-way
And in that culture, if you drive to an intersection, there likely is no lights and there's a right of way.
- And in that culture, if you drive to an intersection, there likely is no lights and there's a right of way.
Examples
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Pedestrians have the right of way, especially in a crosswalk. Good for her then.
Blog text (1) -
"When waiting to make a left turn you should give the right of way to cars coming from the opposite direction..."
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Town Cars have the right of way always!
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I have the right of way here!
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And when I was at the stop sign, I had the right of way to go...
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So, drivers, if you have the right of way, take it.
Blog text (23) -
"How can you identify a blind pedestrian to whom you must yield the right of way?"
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Don't assume the right of way as motorists may not see you.
Blog text (13) -
When the railroads were being built, the government took a lot of private land, saying the railroad needed the right-of-way through the property.
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There is a list of the owners and acreage of land that was condemned for the highway's right-of-way.
Academic text (2012)
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning 'legal right to pass along a route' is directly derivable from combining 'right' (a legal entitlement) with 'way' (a route) joined by 'of' to indicate a relation, so a B1 learner who knows the constituents will likely infer permission to use or precedence on that path. This construction is cross-linguistically common (e.g., Spanish 'derecho de paso', French 'droit de passage') and appears transparently in both property and traffic contexts.
Etymology
Right of way comes from old road rules: when two carts met, the person on the right had the way, the path, and could go first. That's why 'right of way' means the legal right to go before others in traffic.