walkaway

plural walkaways · alternative walk-away

1. A case of a person walking away (e.g. an inmate from a facility, a cult member from a community); a person who walks away.

   There had been several walkaways from the juvenile center.

   1 more example

   […] the inmate must be readied to resmue control of his own affairs through the gradual relaxation of restrictions. This always involves the risk of walkaways, which should not be confused with an escape from an institution with extreme security. The walkaway is not a triumph by the inmate over the prison authorities but a sign that he is not yet able to take control of his own affairs.

   1968, W. T. McGrath, chapter 20, in Report of the Alberta Penology Study, page 129

2. USAn easy victory; a very unequal contest (also used attributively).

   a walkaway victory; a walkaway winner

   3 more examples

   The upcoming election is unlikely to be a walkaway for the encumbent.

   “Listen, son, I know horses,” he said. “This race is a walkaway for King Neptune. A cinch. […]”

   1945, H. Allen Smith, chapter 20, in Low Man on a Totem Pole, page 178

   To be a winner, you have to win the close games—they all won’t be walkaways.

   1996, Francis J. Fitzgerald, editor, The Year the Panthers Roared, page 64

   Synonyms: walkover

3. A business termination in which the entrepreneur winds up the business with its obligations met.
4. businessA property that has been abandoned when the mortgager failed to make their payments, while the mortgagee has abandoned its foreclosure action to avoid the costs associated with ownership.

   Newer construction usually means more empty houses. Foreclosures and walkaways are a lot higher for them than for the developments that date back to the 1970s.

   2011, Steve Campbell (as Nova), chapter 12, in Gardener Summer

5. In a negotiation, the terms representing the least a party is willing to accept (also used attributively).

   walkaway price; walkaway point

   1 more example

   Prepare by knowing your walkaway and by building the number of variables you can work with during the negotiation.

   1993, Benson P. Shapiro and J. J. Sviokla, chapter 2, in Seeking Customers, page 218

   Synonyms: bottom line

6. USA vehicle lease under which the lessee is not responsible for the value of the vehicle at the end of the lease period.

   Synonyms: closed-end lease

7. USattributiveIntended to be consumed while walking.

   The colorful proceedings are augmented by the presence of vendors who serve steamed, cracked crabs out of cauldrons, along with other walkaway fish specialties.

   2012, Rosanna Cirigliano and Richard Fremantle, “Fisherman’s Wharf”, in San Francisco, page 37

8. USA kind of sweet pastry containing cream cheese.

   […] I hang around with her for a few hous and talk and go to Ida’s and get her chocolate shakes or walkaways or magazines.

   1984, John Fox, chapter 14, in The Boys on the Rock, page 76

   1 more example

   The baker always cut off a slice for me to taste and I knew instantly why they called the delicious pastry walkaways—because you walked away with it.

   2012, Peter Cacciolfi and Pattimari Sheets Cacciolfi, Stolen Identity, page 142

9. broadcastingA meal break during which food is not provided, and workers are expected to leave the location to eat.
10. The theft of a suitcase at a hotel through distraction, deception, etc.; a person who engages in this type of theft.

    Leave your suitcase unguarded and a walkaway picked it up―if caught, it was “sorry, my mistake” […]

    2002, Stephen Lewis, chapter 6, in Hotel Kid: A Times Square Childhood, page 158

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    The Walkaway has a hundred variations which all come down to a distraction at the critical time when your luggage has not yet been assigned to the charge of one particular bellman.

    1954, Stewart Sterling, chapter 3, in I Was a House Detective, pages 25-26

11. literatureAn elevated enclosed passage providing access fore and aft from the bridge of a merchant vessel; any similarly elevated walkway.

    Between the two houses the deck is so low that waves often wash over it, and so there has to be a high bridge called a walkaway or a catwalk.

    1953, Mary Elting, Ships at Work, pages 37-38

    Synonyms: catwalk

12. historicalobsoleteA type of sea shanty.

    A rope or “purchase” thrown over the stern of the ship was held by men on each side of the deck, and as they marched forward scraping the bottom with the rope, they sang the walkaway in unison.

    1972, Duncan Emrich, chapter 28, in Folklore on the American Land, page 439

    Synonyms: hand-over-hand, stamp-and-go

13. USobsoleteA person who forgets to take their change after purchasing a ticket at the circus; the money abandoned in this way.

    “I am stalling for a walkaway,” if I refrain from notifying a customer that he has forgotten his change. The “walkaway,” a flurried, absent-minded, or hurrying person who leaves his return money behind, is legion and a constant source of joy to the ticket-seller.

    1905, William Carter Thompson, chapter 1, in On the Road with a Circus, page 21

    1 more example

    A number of men and women out of every thousand are sure to forget their change at the ticket window. The “walkaways,” as they are called, who forget their change, but do not know they have done so, and never return for it, are worth about twenty dollars to the ticket-seller in an average big circus crowd.

    1920, Fred C. Kelly, Human Nature in Business, page 19

1. A small town in the City of Greater Geraldton, Western Australia.