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Wait   /weɪt/   Listen
verb
Wait  v. t.  
1.
To stay for; to rest or remain stationary in expectation of; to await; as, to wait orders. "Awed with these words, in camps they still abide, And wait with longing looks their promised guide."
2.
To attend as a consequence; to follow upon; to accompany; to await. (Obs.)
3.
To attend on; to accompany; especially, to attend with ceremony or respect. (Obs.) "He chose a thousand horse, the flower of all His warlike troops, to wait the funeral." "Remorse and heaviness of heart shall wait thee, And everlasting anguish be thy portion."
4.
To cause to wait; to defer; to postpone; said of a meal; as, to wait dinner. (Colloq.)


Wait  v. i.  (past & past part. waited; pres. part. waiting)  
1.
To watch; to observe; to take notice. (Obs.) ""But (unless) ye wait well and be privy, I wot right well, I am but dead," quoth she."
2.
To stay or rest in expectation; to stop or remain stationary till the arrival of some person or event; to rest in patience; to stay; not to depart. "All the days of my appointed time will I wait, till my change come." "They also serve who only stand and wait." "Haste, my dear father; 't is no time to wait."
To wait on or To wait upon.
(a)
To attend, as a servant; to perform services for; as, to wait on a gentleman; to wait on the table. "Authority and reason on her wait." "I must wait on myself, must I?"
(b)
To attend; to go to see; to visit on business or for ceremony.
(c)
To follow, as a consequence; to await. "That ruin that waits on such a supine temper."
(d)
To look watchfully at; to follow with the eye; to watch. (R.) "It is a point of cunning to wait upon him with whom you speak with your eye."
(e)
To attend to; to perform. "Aaron and his sons... shall wait on their priest's office."
(f)
(Falconry) To fly above its master, waiting till game is sprung; said of a hawk.


noun
Wait  n.  
1.
The act of waiting; a delay; a halt. "There is a wait of three hours at the border Mexican town of El Paso."
2.
Ambush. "An enemy in wait."
3.
One who watches; a watchman. (Obs.)
4.
pl. Hautboys, or oboes, played by town musicians; not used in the singular. (Obs.)
5.
pl. Musicians who sing or play at night or in the early morning, especially at Christmas time; serenaders; musical watchmen. (Written formerly wayghtes) "Hark! are the waits abroad?" "The sound of the waits, rude as may be their minstrelsy, breaks upon the mild watches of a winter night with the effect of perfect harmony."
To lay wait, to prepare an ambuscade.
To lie in wait. See under 4th Lie.





Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48


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"Wait" Quotes from Famous Books



... are suffering! But let me see! only wait in the passage until I have my dressing-gown, and then come ...
— His Hour • Elinor Glyn
... having observed by the preacher (La Motte's) manner that he was not likely to convey the last messages which he had mentioned to his wife and children, sent a request to the judges to be allowed to write one more letter. Captain van der Meulen came back with the permission, saying he would wait and take it to the judges for ...
— The Rise of the Dutch Republic, 1555-1566 • John Lothrop Motley
... his quarry was by this time far out of reach among the tangled ravines on the other side of Two Mountains, he dismissed the two tired river-men who constituted his posse, bidding them go on down the river to Greensville and wait for him. It was his plan to hunt alone for a couple of days in the hope of catching his adversary off guard. He had an ally, unsuspected and invaluable, in a long-legged, half-wild youngster of a girl, who lived alone with her ...
— The Backwoodsmen • Charles G. D. Roberts
... dry, and Sir Walter had a mind to ride into it a little way and see how far one could really go. If wild hogs were rooting about the place it would be well to know it. Bidding Eleanor wait for him in the tiny clearing, he and the Prior pushed their horses in among the reeds where a ridge offered a fair foothold. Marcel, the squires and Roger were not far off, having ...
— Masters of the Guild • L. Lamprey
... common way of explaining away opposition. In their more libelous form such charges rarely reach the printed page, and a Roosevelt may have to wait years, or a Harding months, before he can force an issue, and end a whispering campaign that has reached into every circle of talk. Public men have to endure a fearful amount of poisonous clubroom, dinner table, boudoir slander, repeated, elaborated, chuckled over, and regarded ...
— Public Opinion • Walter Lippmann


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