await
UK/əˈweɪt/
await verb: to wait for.
Verb
await (third-person singular simple present awaits, present participle awaiting, simple past and past participle awaited)
- To wait for.
- I await your reply to my letter.
- Betwixt these rocky pillars Gabriel sat, / Chief of the angelic guards, awaiting night;1674, John Milton, “Book IV”, in Paradise Lost
- Synonyms:
- wait for
- To expect.
- To be in store for; to be ready or in waiting for.
- Glorious rewards await the good in heaven; eternal suffering awaits mortal sinners in hell.
- Standing foursquare in the heart of the town, at the intersection of the two main streets, a "jog" at each street corner left around the market-house a little public square, which at this hour was well occupied by carts and wagons from the country and empty drays awaiting hire.1900, Charles W. Chesnutt, chapter I, in The House Behind the Cedars
- To serve or attend; to wait on, wait upon.
- Synonyms:
- attend to
- To watch, observe.
- To wait; to stay in waiting.
- These are exotic lands where great adventures await.
Noun
await (countable and uncountable, plural awaits)
- A waiting for; ambush.
- Watching, watchfulness, suspicious observation.
- Also, madame, syte you well that there be many men spekith of oure love in this courte, and have you and me gretely in awayte, as thes Sir Aggravayne and Sir Mordred.1470–1485 (date produced), Thomas Malory, “(please specify the chapter)”, in [Le Morte Darthur], book VII, [London: […] by William Caxton], published 31 July 1485, →OCLC; republished as H[einrich]...
- For all that night, the whyles the Prince did rest […] He watcht in close awayt with weapons prest […]1596, Edmund Spenser, “Book VI, Canto VI”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC
await meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Urdu and Bengali
await in Hindi
- transitive: to wait for
- प्रतीक्षा pratīkṣā, इंतज़ार करना intazār karnā
- transitive: to expect
- अपेक्षा apekṣā
- intransitive, to stay in waiting
- प्रतीक्षा pratīkṣā
await in Tamil
- transitive: to wait for
- காத்திரு kāttiru
- transitive: to expect
- காத்திரு kāttiru
- transitive: to be in store for
- காத்திரு kāttiru
await in Urdu
- transitive: to wait for
- انتظار کرنا intazār karnā, منتظر ہونا muntazir honā
await in Bengali
- transitive: to wait for
- অপেক্ষা করা opekkha kora
- transitive: to expect
- অপেক্ষা করা opekkha kora
- intransitive, to stay in waiting
- অপেক্ষা করা opekkha kora
More languagesFewer languages
- await in Malayalam
- കാത്തിരിക്കുക
- await in Kannada
- ಕಾದಿರು, ಎದುರುನೋಡು
- await in Punjabi
- اُڈِیکݨا uḍīkṇā
- await in Tagalog
- maghintay
- await in Arabic
- اِنْتَظَرَ intaẓara, اِسْتَأْنَى istaʔnā
- await in Malay
- mennungu, tunggu
- await in Indonesian
- menunggu, tunggu
- await in Persian
- منتظر شدن montazer šodan, منتظر ... بودن montazer-e ... budan
- await in Thai
- รอ rɔɔ
- await in Vietnamese
- chờ đợi, chờ, đợi
Examples of await in a sentence
- I had occasion […] to make a somewhat long business trip to Chicago, and on my return […] I found Farrar awaiting me in the railway station.1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter II, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company...
- How many clamber over rooftops of houses and palaces, and are still doing it, when their lovers await them!1961, Harry E. Wedeck, Dictionary of Aphrodisiacs, New York: The Citadel Press, page 47:
- After 170416 heads into the bay platform (2) to be prepared for its next trip to 'Skeggy', there's time to grab a coffee and await the arrival of RAIL's next train - the 1144 Leicester-Grimsby Town.2024 April 17, “Rural railways: do they deliver?”, in RAIL, number 1007, page 57:
- O Eve, some further change awaits us nigh.1674, John Milton, “Book XI”, in Paradise Lost:
Synonyms of await
Forms of await
| Verb | |
|---|---|
| third-person singular present | awaits |
| present participle | awaiting |
| past participle | awaited |
| past | awaited |
| Noun | |
| plural | awaits |
Origin of await
From Middle English awaiten, from Old Northern French awaitier (“to lie in wait for, watch, observe”), originally especially with a hostile sense; itself from a- (“to”) + waitier (“to watch”). More at English wait.
Words formed from await
Words that rhyme with await
48 more rhymesFewer rhymes
- mate
- late
- bate
- create
- date
- relate
- vibrate
- wait
- deflate
- fate
- migrate
- rebate
- rotate
- strait
- supererogate
- translocate
- eight
- freight
- skate
- alternate
- collate
- debate
- inflate
- sedate
- update
- compensate
- delate
- dilate
- fixate
- grate
- Haight
- hate
- implicate
- innate
- intercalate
- locate
- mandate
- negate
- overweight
- pinnate
- quadrate
- tate
- vacate
- aerate
- calibrate
- castrate
- conflate
- crate
Questions about await
- What does await mean?
- Await means to wait for.
- What is await in Hindi?
- Await in Hindi is प्रतीक्षा (pratīkṣā), इंतज़ार करना (intazār karnā), अपेक्षा (apekṣā). See Await meaning in Hindi.
- How do you use await in a sentence?
- I had occasion […] to make a somewhat long business trip to Chicago, and on my return […] I found Farrar awaiting me in the railway station.
- What part of speech is await?
- Await can be a verb or a noun.
- How do you pronounce await?
- Await is pronounced /əˈweɪt/ (UK).
- What is the past tense of await?
- The past tense of await is awaited.
Words near await in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: await (page history and authors); await (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); await (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-await.ogg.
Cite this entry: “await.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/await. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.