Word.ws English Dictionary

wait

/weɪt//weɪt/

wait verb: to delay movement or action until some event or time; to remain neglected or in readiness. Also the ellipsis of wait state.

Verb

wait (third-person singular simple present waits, present participle waiting, simple past and past participle waited)

  1. (intransitive) To delay movement or action until some event or time; to remain neglected or in readiness.
    • Wait here until your car arrives.
    • I’m still waiting for you to pay me back the money I lent you..
  2. (US, intransitive, stative) To wait tables; to serve customers in a restaurant or other eating establishment.
    • She used to wait in this joint.
    Synonyms:
    wait on, wait upon, serve
  3. (archaic, transitive) To delay movement or action until the arrival or occurrence of; to await. (Now generally superseded by “wait for”.)
    • to wait one’s turn
    • Awed with these words, in camps they still abide, / And wait with longing looks their promised guide.1697, Virgil, “Aeneis”, in John Dryden, transl., The Works of Virgil: Containing His Pastorals, Georgics, and Æneis. […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC
  4. (obsolete, transitive) To attend on; to accompany; especially, to attend with ceremony or respect.
    • He chose a thousand horse, the flower of all / His warlike troops, to wait the funeral.1697, Virgil, “Aeneis”, in John Dryden, transl., The Works of Virgil: Containing His Pastorals, Georgics, and Æneis. […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC
    • Remorse and heaviness of heart shall wait thee, / And everlasting anguish be thy portion.1714, Nicholas Rowe, The Tragedy of Jane Shore
    Synonyms:
    bestand
  5. (obsolete) To attend as a consequence; to follow upon; to accompany.
    Synonyms:
    attend, escort, go with
  6. (colloquial, obsolete) To defer or postpone (especially a meal).
    • Montague Thorold, who impatiently watched her wherever she went, came to tell her that his mother waited breakfast for her.1791, Charlotte Smith, Celestina, Broadview, published 2004, page 185
    Synonyms:
    defer
  7. (obsolete, except in phrases) To watch with malicious intent; to lie in wait
  8. (intransitive) To remain faithful to one’s partner or betrothed during a prolonged period of absence.
    • She did not question him. Before leaving, she asked only, "When will I see you again?" He answered, "I don't know. Don't wait for me, Dagny. Next time we meet, you will not want to see me."1957, Dagny Taggart; Francisco d'Anconia, Ayn Rand's, Atlas Shrugged
    • I will wait / Even if it takes forever / I will wait / Even if it takes a lifetime1974, The Bee Gees, Night Fever

Noun

wait (plural waits)

  1. A delay.
    • I had a very long wait at the airport security check.
  2. An ambush.
    • They lay in wait for the patrol.
    • an enemy in wait1667, John Milton, “Book IV”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished...
  3. (obsolete) One who watches; a watchman.
  4. (UK, in plural, obsolete) Hautboys, or oboes, played by town musicians.
    • […]as he returned home to his owne house, the waits should sound the hautboies all the way1659, T[itus] Livius [i.e., Livy], “[Book XVII]”, in Philemon Holland, transl., The Romane Historie […], London: […] W. Hunt, for George Sawbridge, […], →OCLC
  5. (UK, in plural) Musicians who sing or play at night or in the early morning, especially at Christmas time; serenaders; musical watchmen.
    • Hark! are the waits abroad?1609–1612, Francis Beaumont, John Fletcher, “The Captaine”, in Comedies and Tragedies […], London: […] Humphrey Robinson, […], and for Humphrey Moseley […], published 1647, →OCLC, Act II, scene ii
    • 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.1819-1820, Washington Irving, The Sketchbook of Geoffrey Crayon

Interjection

  1. (informal) Tells the other speaker to stop talking, typing etc. for a moment, often to allow clarification.
    • - And so I went upstairs—
      - Wait. Your house has two floors?

Proper noun capitalized: Wait

Wait (plural Waits)

  1. A surname.

Also used as

wait is also the ellipsis of wait state.

wait meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu

wait in Hindi

delay until some event
प्रतीक्षा करना pratīkṣā karnā, इंतज़ार करना intzār karnā, ठहरना ṭhaharnā

wait in Tamil

delay until some event
பொறுத்திரு poṟuttiru

wait in Marathi

delay until some event
वाट पाहणे vāṭ pāhṇe, वाट बघणे vāṭ baghṇe

wait in Urdu

delay until some event
اِنْتِظار کَرْنا intizār karnā, مُنْتَظِر ہونا muntazir honā, صَبْر کَرْنا sabr karnā, ٹَھہَرْنا ṭhaharnā
More languagesFewer languages
wait in Bengali
অপেক্ষা করা opekkha kora
wait in Sanskrit
प्रतीक्षते pratīkṣate
wait in Nepali
पर्खनु parkhanu
wait in Pashto
انتظارايستل entezãristᶕl
wait in Tagalog
maghintay, paghihintay
wait in Arabic
اِنْتَظَرَ intaẓara
wait in Malay
menunggu
wait in Indonesian
menunggu
wait in Thai
รอ rɔɔ
wait in Vietnamese
đợi, chờ, chờ đợi
wait in Myanmar
စောင့် caung.

Examples of wait in a sentence

  • They also serve who only stand and wait.1673, John Milton, “[Sonnet] XVI. When I Consider How My Light is Spent.”, in Poems, &c. upon Several Occasions, London: […] Tho[mas] Dring...
  • Haste, my dear father; 'tis no time to wait.1697, Virgil, “Aeneis”, in John Dryden, transl., The Works of Virgil: Containing His Pastorals, Georgics, and Æneis. […], London: […] Jacob...
  • The South London tramway replacement will have to wait, possibly five years, because of the slowing down of bus manufacture due to national requirements.1948 March and April, “Notes and News: London Transport Plans”, in Railway Magazine, page 132:
  • 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, published 2007, page 30:

All 40 example sentences with wait

Synonyms of wait

19 more synonymsFewer synonyms

Antonyms

All synonyms and antonyms of wait

Forms of wait

Verb
third-person singular presentwaits
present participlewaiting
past participlewaited
pastwaited
alternative formwaight
second-person singular present (archaic)waitest
second-person singular past (archaic)waitedst
third-person singular present (archaic)waiteth
Noun
pluralwaits
Proper noun
pluralWaits

Past tense of wait: waited

Plural of wait: waits

Origin of wait

From Middle English waiten, from Anglo-Norman waiter, waitier (compare French guetter from Old French gaitier, guaitier), from Frankish *wahtwēn (“to watch, guard”), derivative of Frankish *wahtu (“guard, watch”), from Proto-Germanic *wahtwō (“guard, watch”), from Proto-Indo-European *weǵ- (“to be fresh, cheerful, awake”). Cognate with Old High German wahtēn (“to watch, guard”), German Low German wachten (“to wait”), Dutch wachten (“to wait, expect”), French guetter (“to watch out for”), Saterland Frisian wachtje (“to wait”), West Frisian wachtsje (“to wait”), North Frisian wachtjen (“to stand, stay put”). More at watch. In some senses, merged or influenced by Middle English waiten, weiten (“to do good to, lie in wait for, to contrive good or harm on, catch, snare”), from Old Norse veita (“to give help to, assist, grant, cause to happen”), from Proto-Germanic *waitijaną (“to show, guide, advise, direct”), from Proto-Indo-European *weyd- (“to see, know”). Largely overtook native Middle English biden, from Old English bīdan, source of bide.

English surname, variant of Waite.

Words formed from wait

Phrases with wait

6 more phrasesFewer phrases

Words that rhyme with wait

48 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about wait

What does wait mean?
Wait means to delay movement or action until some event or time; to remain neglected or in readiness.
What is wait in Hindi?
Wait in Hindi is प्रतीक्षा करना (pratīkṣā karnā), इंतज़ार करना (intzār karnā), ठहरना (ṭhaharnā). See Wait meaning in Hindi.
How do you use wait in a sentence?
They also serve who only stand and wait.
What part of speech is wait?
Wait can be a verb, a noun, an interjection or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce wait?
Wait is pronounced /weɪt/.
What is the past tense of wait?
The past tense of wait is waited.

Words near wait in the dictionary

  1. waistlines
  2. waistlong
  3. waists
  4. waistwrap
  5. waistwraps
  6. wait
  7. wait a minute
  8. wait and see
  9. wait around
  10. wait for
  11. wait for Godot

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: wait (page history and authors); Wait (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-wait.ogg, En-uk-to wait.ogg.

Cite this entry: “wait.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/wait. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.