n.
Pronunciation: ' w ā t
Function: verb
Etymology: Middle English, from Anglo-French waiter, guaiter to watch over, await, of Germanic origin; akin to Old High German wahta watch, Old English wæccan to watch ― more at WAKE
Date: 14th century
transitive verb
1 : to stay in place in expectation of : AWAIT < wait ed the result of the advertisement ― W. M. Thackeray> < wait your turn>
2 : to delay serving (a meal)
3 : to serve as waiter for < wait tables>
intransitive verb
1 a : to remain stationary in readiness or expectation < wait for a train> b : to pause for another to catch up ― usually used with up
2 a : to look forward expectantly <just wait ing to see his rival lose> b : to hold back expectantly < wait ing for a chance to strike>
3 : to serve at meals ― usually used in such phrases as wait on tables or wait on table
4 a : to be ready and available <slippers wait ing by the bed> b : to remain temporarily neglected or unrealized <the chores can wait >
– wait on also wait upon
1 a : to attend as a servant b : to supply the wants of : SERVE
2 : to make a formal call on
3 : to wait for
– wait up : to delay going to bed : stay up
usage American dialectologists have evidence showing wait on (sense 3) to be more a Southern than a Northern form in speech. Handbook writers universally denigrate wait on and prescribe wait for in writing. Our evidence from printed sources does not show a regional preference; it does show that the handbooks' advice is not based on current usage <settlement of the big problems still waited on Russia ― Time > <I couldn't make out ⋯ whether Harper was waiting on me for approval ― E. B. White> <the staggering bill that waited on them at the white commissary downtown ― Maya Angelou>. One reason for the continuing use of wait on may lie in its being able to suggest protracted or irritating waits better than wait for <for two days I've been waiting on weather ― Charles A. Lindbergh> <the boredom of black Africans sitting there, waiting on the whims of a colonial bureaucracy ― Vincent Canby> <doesn't care to sit around waiting on a House that's virtually paralyzed ― Glenn A. Briere>. Wait on is less common than wait for, but if it seems natural, there is no reason to avoid it.