Word.ws English Dictionary

wait-awhile

wait-awhile is the alternative form of wait-a-while.

Meaning of wait-a-while

Noun

wait-a-while (plural wait-a-whiles)

  1. (South Africa) Synonym of wait-a-bit.
    Synonyms:
    wait-a-bit
  2. (Australia) Any of several thorny Australian vines or shrubs which impede passage, especially Acacia cuspidifolia of Western Australia, Smilax australis of eastern Australia and the Northern Territory, and lawyer vine.
    • In the new clearing by the creek where he had felled most of the big stuff, she attacked the landscape with anger, grubbing out the wait-a-while and bush-sword that was still guzzling round the stumps.1979, Thea Astley, Hunting the Wild Pineapple, Nelson, page 136

Forms of wait-awhile

pluralwait-awhiles

Questions about wait-awhile

What is wait-awhile the alternative form of?
Wait-awhile is the alternative form of wait-a-while.

Words near wait-awhile in the dictionary

  1. wait-a-bits
  2. wait-a-minute
  3. wait-a-while
  4. wait-a-whiles
  5. wait-and-see
  6. wait-awhile
  7. wait-free
  8. wait-list
  9. wait-listed
  10. wait-listing
  11. wait-lists

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: wait-awhile (page history and authors); wait-a-while (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.

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