Word: walkaway Part of Speech: noun Etymology: Deverbal from 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. Example: There had been several walkaways from the juvenile center. 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. 2. An easy victory; a very unequal contest (also used attributively). Labels: US Example: The upcoming election is unlikely to be a walkaway for the encumbent. Example: a walkaway victory; a walkaway winner 3. A business termination in which the entrepreneur winds up the business with its obligations met. 4. A 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. Example: 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. 5. In a negotiation, the terms representing the least a party is willing to accept (also used attributively). Example: walkaway price; walkaway point Example: Prepare by knowing your walkaway and by building the number of variables you can work with during the negotiation. 6. A vehicle lease under which the lessee is not responsible for the value of the vehicle at the end of the lease period. Labels: US 7. Intended to be consumed while walking. Labels: US, attributive Example: The colorful proceedings are augmented by the presence of vendors who serve steamed, cracked crabs out of cauldrons, along with other walkaway fish specialties. 8. A kind of sweet pastry containing cream cheese. Labels: US Example: […] 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. 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. 9. A 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. Example: 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. Example: Leave your suitcase unguarded and a walkaway picked it up―if caught, it was “sorry, my mistake” […] 11. An elevated enclosed passage providing access fore and aft from the bridge of a merchant vessel; any similarly elevated walkway. Example: 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. 12. A type of sea shanty. Labels: historical, obsolete Example: 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. 13. A person who forgets to take their change after purchasing a ticket at the circus; the money abandoned in this way. Labels: US, obsolete Example: “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. 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.