straightaway

• (noun): IPA^(key): /ˈstɹeɪtəˌweɪ/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• (adverb, adjective): IPA^(key): /ˌstɹeɪtəˈweɪ/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

straightaway (plural straightaways)

1. Alternative form of straightway (“A straight section of a racetrack.”).

straightaway (not comparable)

1. Alternative form of straight away (“at once; immediately”).
   • 1887 Jan–Jun, “The Contributors' Club”, in The Atlantic Monthly, volume 59, Atlantic Monthly Co., page 140:

     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.

   • 2009, Karen Welberry, Tanya Dalziell, Cultural Seeds: Essays on the Work of Nick Cave, page 34:

     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.

   • 2010, Antonia Magee, Living Thin, page 128:

     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.

straightaway (not comparable)

1. Extending into the distance in a straight line.