straightaway

S1T1R1A1I1G2H4T1A1W4A1Y4
/ˈstɹeɪtəˌweɪ//ˌstɹeɪtəˈweɪ/

adjective

Extending into the distance in a straight line.

UncommonScrabble 22

Meanings

nounstraightaway (plural straightaways)

plural straightaways

  1. alternativeAlternative form of straightway (“A straight section of a racetrack.”).
adverbstraightaway (not comparable)
  1. alternativenot comparableAlternative form of straight away (“at once; immediately”).

    Once again I left Jason's office in high spirits. First cab off the rank was to pay off the LAND card and I intended to do it straightaway, like ripping off a band-aid.

    2010, Antonia Magee, Living Thin, page 128
    2 more examples

    When I have completed a manuscript, if I lay it away in a drawer or pigeon-hole, it lies there quietly enough, and my mind seems wholly discharged of it. But if I mail it, I straightaway find myself tormented with "staircase wit" in the shape of emendations.

    1887 Jan–Jun, “The Contributors' Club”, in The Atlantic Monthly, volume 59, Atlantic Monthly Co., page 140

    The Boys Next Door […] were as likely a prospect as the Australian new wave was going to throw up, could have been and in many ways were the next cab off the rank after the Saints and Radio Birdman, Australia's twin prophets of punk.

    2009, Karen Welberry, Tanya Dalziell, Cultural Seeds: Essays on the Work of Nick Cave, page 34
adjectivestraightaway (not comparable)
  1. not comparableExtending into the distance in a straight line.

Synonyms & antonyms

adjectiveperformed with little or no delay

nouna straight segment of a roadway or racecourse

Similar

adverbwithout delay or hesitation; with no time intervening

Synonym sets from Open English WordNet, CC BY 4.0.

Cite this entry
APA

straightaway. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/straightaway

MLA

“straightaway.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/straightaway. Accessed November 2, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “straightaway,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/straightaway.

Source: straightaway on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.