I. verb
COLLOCATIONS FROM OTHER ENTRIES
a waiting list (= a list of people who are waiting for something )
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If you don’t get the class you want, you can put your name on a waiting list.
call waiting
can’t wait to see the back of (= I will be happy when it ends )
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I can’t wait to see the back of this project, I can tell you .
lie/wait in ambush
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Armed police lay in ambush behind the hedge.
put on a waiting list
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I was then put on a waiting list to see a specialist at the local hospital.
ready and waiting
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When the doorbell rang he was ready and waiting .
Sorry to keep you waiting
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Sorry to keep you waiting – I got stuck in a meeting.
stand/wait in a queue
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She stood in the queue at the checkout.
stand/wait in line
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Customers stood in line for 20 minutes at the cash register.
sth is a disaster waiting to happen (= used to say that something is bad and will fail )
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The government’s educational reforms are a disaster waiting to happen.
wait a moment
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Wait a moment while I get my coat.
wait and see
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We’ll just have to wait and see .
wait for a bus
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We were waiting for the bus for half an hour.
wait for a train
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She sat on the railway platform for half an hour, waiting for a train.
wait for an answer
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Kate was looking at me, waiting for an answer.
wait for an explanation (= expect an explanation )
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She continued to stare at him in silence, waiting for an explanation.
waited patiently
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He waited patiently for Katherine to speak.
waited...with bated breath
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He waited for a reply to his offer with bated breath .
waiting list
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There is still a three-month waiting list for the cars.
waiting long
▪
Have you been waiting long ?
waiting room
COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
■ ADVERB
hardly
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I could hardly wait to get in those bars.
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She could hardly wait to start.
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I can hardly wait to hear about left temporal lobe epileptics.
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I can hardly wait - I hear some of John's outfits are quite stunning.
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This paper's radio critic can hardly wait .
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Well, I could hardly wait for the fight ahead.
patiently
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Carol and Gillian waited patiently while the hall slowly emptied.
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I had two companies engaged by two battalions and the third company waiting patiently .
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Everything was in perfect order, as if the place was waiting patiently for its occupants to arrive.
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Fixing her gaze back on the water, she felt again the presence behind her, waiting patiently .
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No 2 Countess waits patiently while the specially produced banner is displayed to the guest and press.
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Mail flies faster than thought, then waits patiently .
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He waited patiently for Katherine to speak.
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She would wait patiently , sure Frank would choose her in the end.
still
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Five years later, he is still waiting for a response.
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Dallas busted the game open when Irvin slipped past cornerback Terrell Buckley, who is still waiting for help from his safeties.
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Thousands of animals that have been killed are still waiting to be burnt or buried.
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Yet the world was still waiting on Flamsteed to finish surveying the stars.
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Whereas most factory riders spend winter testing for the following season, West was still waiting for his bike to be delivered.
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Stein and the other owners still wait for a damage settlement from their insurance carrier, State Farm Insurance Co.
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At eight, still waiting by the window, a second bulletin corrected one of the reports from the first.
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La Serenata is still waiting for their full liquor license.
there
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Nick was waiting there , holding Miss Fazackerly's hand.
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He then asked them again if they would be patient and wait there until he returned.
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Forester was waiting there , and he looked tired and worn.
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Paramount News sent another of their photographers, Andy Fulgoni, up to Trepassey to wait there for the fliers.
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Sailors waiting there hauled them roughly on to the ship, not caring how they landed.
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Would it, I asked, have seemed like an insult to find it waiting there on the table?
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She waited there a bit and then dashed up the road and crossed over to our street.
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I felt like a vulture sitting there waiting for bad emergencies to happen.
■ NOUN
answer
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Eagerly, Wilson waited for an answer , quite convinced of what it would be.
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Tobie was waiting for an answer .
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He did not wait for an answer , thrust the radio into a tuft of grass six inches from his face.
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He cocked his head, waiting for an answer .
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He was waiting for her answer , not exactly on the edge of his seat, though.
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However, if the customer is waiting for an immediate answer , there is no time for this.
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Almost two months after my interview, I was still hoping and waiting for an answer .
bus
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Half past eight comes and it is time to stand outside and wait for the bus .
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At least 16 children who had been waiting at the bus stop were questioned by investigators.
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I went to Westminster one night in mid-March, and was waiting for my bus just outside the Abbey.
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One by one, silently, they head out the door, across the lobby and into the waiting chartered bus .
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I had to wait for the bus .
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They reminded me of three little schoolboys I had just seen earlier this morning, waiting for the school bus .
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It was the kind of place where you waited for a bus that never came.
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Well, perhaps Warner had seen her waiting for a bus or hitchhiking to the inaugural and generously gave her a lift.
call
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Now he too was waiting for a phone call , promised for the afternoon.
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Women spend more time waiting to get telephone calls and wondering if there will be another date.
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If you leave the fax software running, waiting to answer incoming calls , you can't use the data modem as well.
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They were waiting for my call .
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A team of officers will also be waiting for calls at the Durham Police headquarters.
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Each night as I wait for his call I feel my strength on trial; what will become of my hard-won solitude?
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Especially now, waiting for the call into their presence.
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For the time being she was excused from her prop-room duties and she needn't wait for the curtain call .
days
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Around half of patients currently wait longer than two days to see their doctor.
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The rabbi told Minna that she would have to wait ninety days before she could be married again.
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We had friends who waited two days in Sorata before getting transport to the Ancohuma base.
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After waiting around for ten days he was instructed to proceed to Bombay.
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She had to wait four more days .
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Doctors at Pinderfield hospital, Huddersfield, will wait two days before operating to remove the pellet lodged behind his left eye.
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There they waited and marked their days .
hour
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We waited another half hour behind a pile of sand for the shooting to die down.
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Huge crowds were waiting an hour in the cold before the service was scheduled to begin.
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We must have waited half an hour .
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After hostage negotiators heard the gunshot over the phone, police waited about a half hour before entering the home.
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He waited an hour , quite immobile.
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Help yourself, but wait an hour after eating.
line
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Parr kept his window open, and while he waited on the line , let the sounds from outside wash his consciousness.
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Anyone who has ever waited in line at the Department of Motor Vehicles will sympathize with this dilemma.
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I look at the faces of the women waiting in line .
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A few people waiting in line mutter in disgust, others sigh.
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In Teheran poor peoples wait in long lines in the snow for paraffin.
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Fakhru did not like to wait in line .
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Half the kids stay to wait in line .
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The name Daley and Simon on the office door possesses magic that has the big clients almost waiting in line .
minute
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He left her on the hard shoulder, near Epping, Essex, saying she would only have to wait 15 minutes .
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And hey, wait a minute .
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Duck or diver, it had dived, and, though I waited for long minutes , it did not appear again.
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Aganiia, wait a minute , precious.
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We went inside and waited: the minutes seemed like hours.
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Then we threw down the two pull-cords on either side, waited a minute or so, and headed down.
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No, wait a minutes , don't tell me - it's a long time since - where was it?
minutes
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It's a big file, so expect to wait a few minutes .
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He waited fifteen minutes , which seemed like hours, and still she didn't come.
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The camp waited , and more minutes slowly passed.
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Duck or diver, it had dived, and, though I waited for long minutes , it did not appear again.
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We went inside and waited: the minutes seemed like hours.
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I waited ten more minutes , then raised the latch and eased the door open until it bumped against his head.
moment
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He pressed down on the cradle, waited a moment then dialled again.
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Perhaps he had been toying with John Chapel, waiting for the perfect moment to strike.
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The pilot is under orders to wait for the right moment to land.
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Pat waited a moment , then sighed and hooked his arm.
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I was waiting for the right moment to find out just how deeply your were involved with Elise.
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All the while, however, he was waiting for his moment .
month
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On that basis the number waiting over 12 months is now 27 percent. lower than in March 1979.
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Of course, if I'd waited just a few months , I could have had anyone I liked.
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We still have to wait months for payment of vitally important benefits such as the attendance allowance.
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But it is not worth waiting several months for the right special offer to come up.
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Alistair waited for nearly two months .
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But she may have to wait up to eighteen months for surgery.
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Two days waiting like two bloody months .
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I buy your magazine every month and sometimes I don't receive it and have to wait till the month after.
train
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Charlotte walked slowly on to the platform and waited for her train to pull in.
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The platform is brightly lit and filled with people waiting for the train to pull in.
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The man was standing by his left shoulder, waiting for the train to stop.
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At about 4: 00 p. m. about 600 people were waiting around for their trains .
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But he could not sit patiently and wait for the next train , in an hour's time.
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There were a couple of men standing there by the door, waiting for the train to pull in and stop.
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I spect he's waiting for a train .
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It'd be nice to be waiting here for a train and then getting on it and going somewhere nice.
turn
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It is unnecessarily unnerving to be waiting your turn while potential workmates eye you up and down.
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Jelani had to wait his turn .
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Everyone had to wait their turn or be punished by filling in a long complicated questionnaire two hundred and sixteen times.
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Inside, he picked up a magazine and waited his turn .
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Goibniu would have to wait his turn .
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Men line up in the yard, smoking and passing around flasks and bottles while they wait their turn inside.
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Other questions, no less pressing such as who, how, why and when would just have to wait their turn .
years
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Mind has waited for 3 billion years on this planet before composing its first string quartet.
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But why did we have to wait 30 years to learn about them?
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No longer can the company wait two to three years to deliver a satellite, Schwendinger said.
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Sokolov's idea was good, but it had to wait more than 20 years before the technology to implement it was invented.
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She had been on transplant waiting lists for three years .
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Charlotte and Alexander have been waiting for years .
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Growers -- mostly peasant farmers -- planted agave in the late 1980s, then waited seven years for their crop to mature.
■ VERB
keep
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One man was not going to be kept waiting , though.
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Now, off you go, you have kept him waiting long enough.
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And Alvin never kept you waiting while he pondered.
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We kept waiting and waiting for you to pop up.
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Mr Clinton was horribly late for a night at the Hanoi opera house, keeping everyone waiting .
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We both kept waiting for the moment when the experience would overwhelm us and send chills up our spines.
lie
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He lay frozen, waiting for some reaction, but there was nothing.
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They lay there, waiting for sleep to come.
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I wonder whether I lay waiting , having to do without him and lull myself the whole way to sleep.
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In her room, Jenna undressed and went to bed, but she lay awake, waiting for grief to hit her.
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For the students it becomes a period of morbid hibernation, lying low and waiting out the years.
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Just sitting, lying , waiting for the inevitable visit to room 19.
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Now this woman of endless stories, a teacher, lies without words, waiting to die.
sit
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In his room he pulled on a dressing-gown and sat down and waited .
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Neither should be ignored-above all, not while we sit back and wait for the society to be transformed.
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Returning to his chair, he sat and waited .
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On the high hilltop in the darkness Psyche sat , waiting for she knew not what terror.
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All they had to do was sit back and wait for it all to fall apart.
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Her moment of complete despair had come when Doyle switched on the radio and sat down to wait and see what happened.
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You can see them on the hardwood ridges, but only if you sit down and wait patiently.
stand
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I therefore continued to stand there awkwardly, waiting for my employer to give me permission to undertake the motoring trip.
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While Rusakova stood waiting outside, Galina filed into the Buran along with 38 other passengers.
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We can not stand by and wait for the equivalent of the Apple Macintosh to create a second empowerment of our students.
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But these classical kids just stood around in rehearsal waiting to be shown what to do.
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They were made to stand and wait in the first of these.
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The young man stood patiently waiting , in jeans with rolled cuffs, two days' stubble on his chin.
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As soon as you saw that you were about to be struck, you stood at attention and waited for the blows.
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An intruder stood over me, waiting .
PHRASES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
(waiting/lurking) in the wings
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He stopped by on his night off, was let in the stage door, and stood in the wings .
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None the less, there are always people waiting in the wings to discredit a positive image.
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On Concorde, though, the engines are embedded in the wings , next to the fuel tanks.
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Platt has had to wait in the wings because he is one of four foreign players fighting for the permitted three places.
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The local chapter leaders waiting in the wings seemed upset.
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There were no wealthy aunts or uncles waiting in the wings .
an accident waiting to happen
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A student helicopter pilot wallowing around in a hover in a tight clearing is an accident waiting to happen.
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Another way of putting it would be that the dollar is an accident waiting to happen.
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Mr Stewart said that there was an accident waiting to happen and he feared lives would be lost.
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People living near the site say it was an accident waiting to happen.
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Unless, of course, it was an accident waiting to happen.
can only hope/wait etc
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Dagenham's employees can only hope that Ford does not resurrect the phrase in the 1990s.
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Hamilton can only hope he improves as much as Benes has since the Padres traded him.
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Like the steeplechase where Vronsky breaks his mare's back with reckless riding, you can only wait for the pistol shot.
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The scientists can only wait and hope.
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Users can only hope the vendors will apply the same effort to other unresolved technology issues.
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We can only hope Gilstrap won't push to have any of that text deleted.
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We can only wait and help each other and watch this dreadful plague spread.
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You can only hope they learned from their mistakes.
let the dust settle/wait for the dust to settle
wait a minute/just a minute/hold on a minute/hang on a minute
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
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"Have you heard about the job?" "No, I'm still waiting."
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Wait here until I get back.
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Are you waiting to use the phone?
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He waited for the applause to die down before he continued speaking.
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I'll stay here and wait for Suzie.
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I'm so sorry I kept you waiting.
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I've done as much as I can - now all I can do is wait and see what happens.
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She waited for him to reply.
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The airline industry has adopted a wait -and-see attitude to the report's proposals.
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We spent almost an hour just waiting for the bus.
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Where have you been? I've been waiting since 7:00.
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You'll have to wait a few minutes - I'm not ready yet.
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
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After the first date he said he would phone her: she waited by the telephone until after midnight.
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Here is a soldier who was waiting, with a heavy heart, to suffer and die in battle.
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I am waiting to try it out on some one.
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People were jammed behind a metal fence, waiting for passengers coming in from abroad to emerge from Customs.
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She believed in the ship, and was waiting for it.
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Substantial supplies had to wait on the mining of reefs first found as late as 1880 outcropping on the Tawmaw plateau.
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The morning star has withdrawn behind the curtain of light to wait for its chance to shine again tomorrow.
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They were calling off their comrades who waited in ambush further ahead.
II. noun
COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
■ ADJECTIVE
average
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The average wait before this is located would be half a revolution if the whole overflow track were full.
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Usually this is not the case so the average wait will be less than half a revolution.
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The average wait was 20 weeks.
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This should reduce the average wait for notes from 20 weeks to 4.6 weeks.
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The average wait is usually about 40 seconds.
long
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Ironically, later auf became a local expression for a long wait , or working for nothing.
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Blue resigns himself to a long wait and then settles down with his newspapers and magazines.
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There was running and shouting outside, then a long wait in silence.
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And if you around here looking for justice, you got a long wait .
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Ferguson can not afford to wait if United are to end their long wait for the League title this season.
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Walking without tripping was enough after such a long wait .
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A long wait for a patient with bladder outflow obstruction for a specialist opinion is both undesirable and unacceptable.
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Then Alvin endured a long , dispirited wait for a flight back to New York late that night.
short
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After a short wait he climbed the stairs and at the top he called again.
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There's usually a much shorter wait , if any.
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After the interview with the doctor there may be a short wait before the examination itself begins.
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The train came miraculously in ten minutes, a short wait .
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I do studies in my office on patient satisfaction, short waits , warmth and caring of my office personnel.
■ VERB
face
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The parents face a nightmare week-long wait before blood tests show if there has been a hospital blunder.
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The tests are due to be carried out over the next fortnight but parents will face a six-week wait for the results.
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They will now face a six week wait for the results of the tests.
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Customers face a long wait before they have a chance of getting any money back.
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They face an anxious wait over the weekend to see whether the farm, at Woolstone, is infected.
lie
▪
There were pitched battles, so they lay in wait for you.
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Everywhere, finally, social revolution lies in wait , showing its colours and sharpening its demands.
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An ant-lion larva lies in wait at the bottom of its specially constructed pit.
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They will lie in wait for you.
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They also lie in wait and whip out an arm to seize the crab with their suckers.
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Some real bargains lie in wait amongst the never-ending maze of stalls.
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He ended up sinking into the madness that lies in wait for those who think too much about death.
PHRASES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
can only hope/wait etc
▪
Dagenham's employees can only hope that Ford does not resurrect the phrase in the 1990s.
▪
Hamilton can only hope he improves as much as Benes has since the Padres traded him.
▪
Like the steeplechase where Vronsky breaks his mare's back with reckless riding, you can only wait for the pistol shot.
▪
The scientists can only wait and hope.
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Users can only hope the vendors will apply the same effort to other unresolved technology issues.
▪
We can only hope Gilstrap won't push to have any of that text deleted.
▪
We can only wait and help each other and watch this dreadful plague spread.
▪
You can only hope they learned from their mistakes.
keep sb waiting
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Lott kept us waiting for 40 minutes while he attended another meeting.
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She was annoyed because she had been kept waiting.
let the dust settle/wait for the dust to settle
lie in wait (for sb)
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But who knows also the beauty which lies in wait hereabouts, which led Williams and Bingley to make the climb?
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Everywhere, finally, social revolution lies in wait, showing its colours and sharpening its demands.
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He lay in wait for his father and wounded him terribly.
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Life had always pulsated; death for ever lay in wait.
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One month ago, each new day had lain in wait to ambush Gabriel: he had woken up cringing.
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She lay in wait for pain, expecting no rewards from people, and this made her a hopelessly disconcerting friend.
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Some real bargains lie in wait amongst the never-ending maze of stalls.
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There were pitched battles, so they lay in wait for you.
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
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A lot of patients face a two-year wait for treatment.
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After a four-hour wait at the airport, we finally got on a flight to New York.
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I'm sorry you have had such a long wait .
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Relatives now face an anxious wait while the emergency services search the wreckage for survivors.
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There is often a one-hour wait to see a doctor.
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
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By the end of 1996 long waits had shot up again.
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I do studies in my office on patient satisfaction, short waits, warmth and caring of my office personnel.
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In many ways it's worth the wait .
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So there is not that long a wait .