Talk:waylaid

Not sure what this means

It has two possible meanings. One is the past tense of "waylay": "The enemies waylaid the soldiers", means that the soldiers were marching along and suddenly got ambushed. The other sense is the past participle of "waylay", which is basically the same thing, except it's like an adjective: "The soldiers were waylaid by the enemies", means the same thing as "The enemies waylaid the soldiers". Another example of the past participle would be this: "The waylaid soldiers finally reached their headquarters". This means that the soldiers, who got ambushed, finally reached their headquarters.