Wait
Contents
English
Verb
Wait (third-person singular simple present Waits, present participle Waiting, simple past and past participle Waited)
- (transitive, now rare) To delay movement or action until the arrival or occurrence of; to await. (Now generally superseded by "wait for".)
- 1992, Hilary Mantel, A Place of Greater Safety, Harper Perennial 2007, p. 30:
- The Court had assembled, to wait events, in the huge antechamber known as the Œil de Boeuf.
- 1992, Hilary Mantel, A Place of Greater Safety, Harper Perennial 2007, p. 30:
- (intransitive) To delay movement or action until some event or time; to remain neglected or in readiness.
- Wait here until your car arrives.
- (intransitive, US) To wait tables; to serve customers in a restaurant or other eating establishment.
- She used to wait down at the Dew Drop Inn.
Notes
- In sense 1, this is a catenative verb that takes the to infinitive. See Appendix:English catenative verbs
Synonyms
- (delay until event): hold one's breath
Derived terms
Noun
Wait (plural Waits)- A delay.
- I had a very long wait at the airport security check.
- An ambush.
- They laid in wait for the patrol.
- (obsolete) One who watches; a watchman.
- plural Hautboys, or oboes, played by town musicians.
- plural Musicians who sing or play at night or in the early morning, especially at Christmas time; serenaders; musical watchmen. [formerly waites, wayghtes.]
- Beaumont and Fletcher
- Hark! are the waits abroad?
- Washington Irving
- 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.
- Beaumont and Fletcher
Adverbs for Wait
breathlessly; passively; sadly; reverently; anxiously; exultantly; mutely; devotedly; placidly; instinctively; calmly; apprehensively; boldly; hungrily; morbidly; disastrously; indecisively; tensely.
Thesaurus
abide, administer to, afterthought, attend, attend on, await, ballad singer, balladeer, bard, be patient, bear with composure, bide, bide the issue, bind, block, blockage, bureaucratic delay, care for, carry on, carry through, chore, dally, dance attendance upon, dawdle, delay, delayage, delayed reaction, detention, dillydally, do for, do service to, double take, dragging, drudge, fili, folk singer, folk-rock singer, forbear, gleeman, halt, hang about, hang around, hang-up, help, hindrance, hold everything, hold on, hold your horses, holdup, interim, jam, jongleur, lackey, lag, lagging, linger, logjam, loiter, look after, maid, mark time, minister to, minnesinger, minstrel, moratorium, obstruction, pander to, paperasserie, pause, red tape, red-tapeism, red-tapery, remain, reprieve, respite, retardance, retardation, rhapsode, rhapsodist, scop, serenader, serve, sit tight, sit up, sit up for, slow-up, slowdown, slowness, stay, stay of execution, stay up, stay up for, stick, stick around, stop, stoppage, street singer, strolling minstrel, suspension, sweat, sweat it out, sweat out, take care of, take time, tarry, tend, tie-up, time lag, troubadour, trovatore, upon, valet, wait a minute, wait and see, wait for, wait it out, wait on, wait up for, wandering minstrel, watch, watch and wait, work for
Etymology
From Old Northern French waitier, a variant of Old French gaiter (“watch for”) (modern guetter "watch for"), of Germanic origin.
Pronunciation
Translations
Verb
Noun
Related terms
Statistics
- Most common English words before 1923: sitting · Christ · begin · #789: wait · laughed · opportunity · lines
Anagrams
- English verbs
- English terms with rare senses
- American English
- English nouns
- English terms with obsolete senses
- English terms derived from Old Northern French
- English terms derived from Old French
- English terms derived from Germanic languages
- Pages with broken file links
- English control verbs
- English intransitive verbs
