Definition of "way station" []

• A station between principal stations on a route, as of a railroad. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "Still, since their mauntery served as a way station for those who acted upon the stage of the world, the good sisters considered themselves at least as broad-minded as any other cloistered soul."
• "But Kirk preferred to think of the Graveyard of Lost Ships as a way station en route to their real destination—the Enterprise."
• "MAURITIUS WAS a way station for another notable voyage, made by one Abel Tasman in 1642."