The meaning of the verb ‘to get in the way’

literaturemeaning-in-context

I am quoting from The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, The Resident Patient by Arthur Conan Doyle:

"Mr Blessington came in from his walk shortly afterwards, but I did not say anything to him upon the subject, for, to tell the truth, I have got in the way of late of holding as little communication with him as possible".

I found a definition of "get in the way":

To obstruct or interfere with something.

but it doesn't seem to suit the meaning intended by the author.

Best Answer

The expression is to get in(to) the way of doing something. It is British English and it means

to start to do something regularly

  • The women had got into the way of going up on the deck every evening. (Longman)

FreeDictionary also has an entry for the expression, pointing out that you can also get out of the way of doing something:

get into/out of the way of something/of doing something: become used to doing something/lose the habit of doing something

Here is another example from classic British literature:

She ate a little bit, and said anxiously to herself, "which way? which way?" and laid her hand on the top of her head to feel which way it was growing, and was quite surprised to find that she remained the same size: to be sure this is what generally happens when one eats cake, but Alice had got into the way of expecting nothing but out-of-the way things to happen, and it seemed quite dull and stupid for things to go on in the common way. (Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures Under Ground)

ADDITION: Prompted by a helpful comment, I will add that indeed, the phrase get in(to) the habit of is more common nowadays:

enter image description here

The phrase is more common in BrE than in AmE, but it is definitely used on both sides of the Atlantic. The interesting thing, however, is that get into the habit of is preferred in BrE, while get in the habit of is preferred in AmE.

Related Topic