Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • adjective Affording passage in two directions.
  • adjective Moving in two directions.
  • adjective Permitting communication in two directions.
  • adjective Permitting flow in two directions.
  • adjective Expressive of or involving mutual action, relationship, or responsibility.
  • adjective Involving two participants.
  • adjective Sports Playing both offense and defense.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Having the capacity to act in two ways: said of a fitting or fixture which has one inlet and one outlet.
  • Noting a fitting resembling a T, with one inlet and two outlets, but no control over the flow through them.
  • In mech., having two ways or passages.
  • In mathematics, having a double mode of variation. Thus, a surface is a two-way spread.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • adjective (Pipe Fitting) Serving to connect at will one pipe or channel with either of two others.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective of a highway allowing traffic in two directions
  • adjective of traffic moving in both directions
  • adjective etc. permitting communication in two directions
  • adjective of a project, etc. involving the mutual action or participation of two parties
  • adjective American football Playing both offense and defense in the same game

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • adjective involving two parts or elements
  • adjective supported by both sides
  • adjective operating or permitting operation in either of two opposite directions

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From two- +‎ way. Compare Old English twiweġ ("intersection, junction of two roads").

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Examples

  • The cups of some of the brassieres seemed much more pointed than anything she had seen before, and an item called a two-way stretch, which looked as though it had plastic bones in the middle, was new to her.

    Brooklyn Colm Tóibín 2009

  • The cups of some of the brassieres seemed much more pointed than anything she had seen before, and an item called a two-way stretch, which looked as though it had plastic bones in the middle, was new to her.

    Brooklyn Colm Tóibín 2009

  • The cups of some of the brassieres seemed much more pointed than anything she had seen before, and an item called a two-way stretch, which looked as though it had plastic bones in the middle, was new to her.

    Brooklyn Colm Tóibín 2009

  • “This wasn’t what I’d call a two-way street,” said one government official who attended several of the financial meetings.

    The Shadow Market Eric J.Weiner 2010

  • It's two-way gunfight going on or so it would seem.

    Syria: live from the frontline in Homs 2012

  • At the first traffic light you will veer to the right onto a two-way access road (Lara) that parallels Coloso.

    Help ! In Central Mexico without any visa or car permit. 2009

  • Orin Kerr: Plus, presumably it would create a two-way street: The Supreme Court would have to start looking to Congress to see if there is a statutory privacy law, and that if there is no such law, that should be evidence that no reasonable expectation of privacy exists even if the Court were otherwise inclined to recognize one.

    The Volokh Conspiracy » Thoughts on the Oral Argument in City of Ontario v. Quon 2010

  • Backers of the ban say that the adoption of two-way radios in the mid-1990s has stifled the action and made for often-predictable racing.

    Saxo’s Bjarne Riis blasts UCI over radio ban 2011

  • Plus, presumably it would create a two-way street: The Supreme Court would have to start looking to Congress to see if there is a statutory privacy law, and that if there is no such law, that should be evidence that no reasonable expectation of privacy exists even if the Court were otherwise inclined to recognize one.

    The Volokh Conspiracy » Thoughts on the Oral Argument in City of Ontario v. Quon 2010

  • I think that even if there is a two-way system (so the child sees the person being accused), there could be a Sixth Amendment violation.

    The Volokh Conspiracy » Iowa Constitution’s Due Process Clause Bars Propensity-to-Commit-Crime Evidence 2010

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