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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



... remained clear of the unpleasant vices that so often mar men's most innocent avocations. Mr. Locker always knew what he wanted and what he did not want, and never could be persuaded to take the one for the other; he did not grow excited in the presence of the quarry; he had patience to wait, and to go on waiting, and he seldom ...
— In the Name of the Bodleian and Other Essays • Augustine Birrell
... —Wait a moment, professor MacHugh said, raising two quiet claws. We mustn't be led away by words, by sounds of words. We think of ...
— Ulysses • James Joyce
... passed him, and handed it back to be refilled. "That sort o' limbers a feller's tongue a bit. Well, the secret is," said Hiram, lowering his voice, "that when Huldy saw me gettin' ready to go out, sez she, 'Where are you goin'?' 'Over to Mr. Pettengill's,' sez I. Then sez she, 'Will you wait a minute till I write a note?' 'Certainly,' sez I. And when she brought me the note, sez she, 'Please give that to Mr. Pettengill and don't let anybody else see it.' Then sez I to her, 'No, ma'am;' but I sez to myself, 'Nobody but Mandy.'" ...
— Quincy Adams Sawyer and Mason's Corner Folks - A Picture of New England Home Life • Charles Felton Pidgin
... work to ride my master's horses:' or Kate were to say, 'I will no longer sweep the chambers, sith 'tis higher matter to dress my master's meat:' and Nell,—'I will no longer dress the meat, sith it were a greater thing to wait upon my mistress in her chamber,'—tell me, should the work of the house be done better, ...
— Clare Avery - A Story of the Spanish Armada • Emily Sarah Holt
... say he gwine think 'bout hit, an' he tell Quail ter come back in seven days an' git de arnser. So Quail he go hippitty-hoppin' down de mountains, thinkin' he bin mighty smart, an' wunnerin' ef he kin stan' hit ter wait seven mo' days befo' ...
— The Wit and Humor of America, Volume VII. (of X.) • Various


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