A verb + one's way + an adverbial phrase

Question

I have discovered the pattern "a verb + one's way + an adverbial phrase" has very various variants.
And I have had a difficult time in understanding the meaning of those variants and finding a common feature among those variants.

Here are my interpretations of those variants.
And I'd like to check with you whether my thought is right.
1) He felt his way toward the door in the dark.
- He made feeling for his way toward the door in the dark.
2) She pushed her way through the crowd.
- She made pushing for her way through the crowd.
3) They wormed their way up the rock.
- They made worming for their way up the rock.
4) He worked his way through college.
- He made working for his way through college.
5) He could eat his way to better health.
- He could make eating for his way to better health.
6) He tried to explain his way out of the difficult situation.
- He tried to come out explaining by his way out of the difficult situation.

Thank you in advance for your help.

Park sang joon · Accepted Answer

I want to revive this thread.
Please leave any comment you think of my thought.

Fivejedjon · Answer

All of your alternate versions are very unnatural indeed.

If you make your way, you make progress. If you verb your way, you make your progress by verbing:

She pushed her way through the crowd.
- She made her way through the crowd by pushing.

Park sang joon · Answer

Thank you, fivejedjon, for your valuable answer.
In my examples, do the verbs take 'one's way' as an object?

CalifJim · Answer

park sang joona common feature among those variants.

Usually: Subject . Verb-of-kind-of-motion . Subject's . WAY . Phrase-of-direction
Meaning: Subject . GO . Phrase-of-direction . BY . Kind-of-motion-ing

The sentence that gives the meaning may not be perfectly grammatical or idiomatic, but it gives the general idea of the meaning.

1) He felt his way toward the door in the dark.
- He went toward the door in the dark by feeling.

2) She pushed her way through the crowd.
- She went through the crowd by pushing.

3) They wormed their way up the rock.
- They went up the rock by 'worming' (i.e., by making worm-like movements)

4) He worked his way through college.
- He went through college by working. (to pay the college fees)

5) He could eat his way to better health.
- He could go to achieve better health by eating. ('go to' is not idiomatic; 'achieve' is the meaning we infer.)

6) He tried to explain his way out of the difficult situation.
- He tried to go get out of the difficult situation (by) making/inventing explanations. ('get' is idiomatic here; 'go' is not.)

CJ

Park sang joon · Answer

Thank you, Mr.Jim, for your elaborate and concrete answer.
Then, I will think 'one's way' involves a metaphorical meaning.

A verb + one's way + an adverbial phrase

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