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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



... one (1) married lady and the boy of the lady, I think the married lady is a sister but I do not ask any one, oh—and another brother, who does not live here only on Saturdays and Sundays. Aunt Margaret makes ten, and they have a man to wait on the table. His name is a butler. I guess you have read about them in stories. I am taken right in to be one of the family, and I have a good time every day now. Aunt Margaret's father is a college teacher, ...
— Turn About Eleanor • Ethel M. Kelley
... in the saddle by two A.M. of the 31st. But it proved to be too foggy to push on: he had as yet no guides, and he was obliged to wait for daylight. ...
— The Campaign of Chancellorsville • Theodore A. Dodge
... dark womb of sacred earth This labour of our hands is given, As seeds that wait the second birth, And turn to blessings watch'd by heaven! Ah seeds, how dearer far than they We bury in the dismal tomb, Where Hope and Sorrow bend to pray That suns beyond the realm of day ...
— Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, No. CCCXXIX. - March, 1843, Vol. LIII. • Various
... more like a triumphant sovereign than a captive. A chosen band of Christian horsemen, splendidly armed, appeared to wait upon her as a mere guard of honor. She was surrounded by the Moorish damsels of her train, and followed by her own Moslem guards, all attired with the magnificence that had been intended to grace her arrival at the court ...
— Knickerbocker, or New-York Monthly Magazine, March 1844 - Volume 23, Number 3 • Various
... did not wait to hear more, but seizing the affrighted creature by the collar, thundered forth, "I have heard of you before. You are the villain, are you, who has been turning my office into a den of thieves? I have caught you ...
— The Lock and Key Library/Real Life #2 • Julian Hawthorne


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