WAIT ON • E-FREE TRANSLATION.COM • Definition of Wait on

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/weɪt ɑn/ Listen

verb

Wait v. i. (past & past part. waited; pres. part. waiting)

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."

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.

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Etymology of 'Wait on'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Wait on" Quotes from Famous Books

... to my proposition, he only has to name his time and place—or if he prefers to have a personal interview, he can do so. I am willing to wait on him at his boarding-house, but would like to have at least one respectable person present to hear ...

— Secret Band of Brothers • Jonathan Harrington Green

... above the waves at least fifteen of his weaker fellows. Norman smiled satirically round at the complacently nodding circle of gray heads and white heads. "My observation has been," said he, "that every clever chap is shrewd enough to compel at least fifteen of his fellows to wait on him, to take care of him—do his chores—and his dirty work." The nodding stopped. Scowls appeared, except on the face of old Galloway. He grinned. He was one of the few examples of a very rich man with a sense of humor. Norman always thought it was this slight incident that led to his getting ...

— The Grain Of Dust - A Novel • David Graham Phillips

... fashioning their arms, clothing and shelter, to the time when man was a mere animal. Civilised man is not only an animal, but an intellectual and spiritual being, and it is as natural for him to clothe himself as for a cow to eat grass. Our intellect has been made to wait on our animal nature, whilst our spiritual has lagged far behind. Animal food and all else of a stimulating character, stimulates the lower nature of man, his selfish propensities; whilst mild food makes it easier ...

— The Chemistry of Food and Nutrition • A. W. Duncan

... might not be lying in ambush within close gunshot of the horse to which the conjecturer dared not now return? In those hills a man would sometimes lie whole days in ambush for a neighbor, and one need not be a coward to shudder at the chance of being assassinated by mistake. To wait on was safest, but it was very tedious. Yet soon enough, and near and sudden enough, seemed the appearance of the man waited for, when at length, without a warning sound, he issued from the bushy shadow ...

— John March, Southerner • George W. Cable

... wait On these unpeopled tracks the happy close Of Day, whose advent rang with noise elate, Whose later stage was quick with mirthful shows And clasping loves, with hate and hearty blows, And dreams of coming gifts withheld ...

— Songs, Sonnets & Miscellaneous Poems • Thomas Runciman

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