What term should I use to mean when a person stops what they are doing to do something?

Question

What I mean is this:

Suppose someone is doing a job, like washing a car and someone insults that person. The person then stops washing the car just to punch the other person and then returns to washing the car.

I once heard something like:

"The person got out of his way just to punch him".

or something like that.

The phrase construction is also used when a person does something they are not supposed to do and the person narrating that is surprised by the good action.

Like, he changed his normal behavior to do that for me...

My first example is probably wrong, but I remember the words "of his/her way" ... or something like that. Excuse me if I am not that clear.

Answer 1

I think you mean that he "went out of his way". It can refer to doing something good or something bad.
If it refers to something bad, it's probably referring to some behavior that was not provoked, as it was in your example. Suppose he's washing his car, and someone is walking by, minding his own business. Then, he stopped washing the car and and went out of his way to punch him. If there was provocation, you would not say that he went out of his way.