waiter
Syllables: wait·er/ˈwæɪ̯təː/UK/ˈweɪ̯təː/
waiter noun: a male or female attendant who serves customers at their tables in a restaurant, café or similar.
Noun
waiter (plural waiters)
- A male or female attendant who serves customers at their tables in a restaurant, café or similar.
- Waiter! There's a fly in my soup.
- She was a fat, round little woman, richly apparelled in velvet and lace, […]; and the way she laughed, cackling like a hen, the way she talked to the waiters and the maid,[…]—all these unexpected phenomena impelled one to hysterical mirth, and made one class her with such immortally ludicrous types...1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter II, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC
- Someone who waits for somebody or something; a person who is waiting.
- However, the NTPF also contained implicit negative incentives for the public sector by offering alternative private sector treatment for the longest waiters at no extra cost to patients or no penalty to public providers.2013, Siciliani Luigi, Borowitz Michael, Moran Valerie, OECD Health Policy Studies: Waiting Time Policies in the Health Sector
- A person working as an attendant at the London Stock Exchange.
- A vessel or tray on which something is carried, as dishes, etc.; a salver. (See etymology of dumbwaiter.)
- Cautioning her, in these terms, not to trip over a heterogeneous litter of pastry-cook’s trays, lamps, waiters full of glasses, and piles of rout seats which were strewn about the hall, plainly bespeaking a late party on the previous night, the man led the way to the second story […]1839, Charles Dickens, Nicholas Nickleby
- RUSTOMJEE PESTONJEE will sell by Public Auction, on MONDAY, the 9th instant, at his Rooms, in Medow Street, the property of the late Captain Ord, 3rd Regt. N.I., comprising a Double Barrelled Gun, by Baker, Silver Tea and Sugar Pots, four pairs of Muffiniers, Spoons and Forks, &c., a pair of Plated...1862 February 5, Rustomjee Pestonjee & Co., “Sale by Public Auction, by Order of the Administrator General”, in The Bombay Gazette and Indian Daily News, number 5,499 (New Series), Bombay: Bombay...
- A custom house officer; a tide waiter.
- A watchman.
Verb
waiter (third-person singular simple present waiters, present participle waitering, simple past and past participle waitered)
- To work as a waiter.
- I had definitely had my fill of factory jobs, but had never worked in an office, nor bussed, nor waitered.1992, James Kenneth Melson, “Iowa Boy in the Windy City”, in The Golden Boy, The Haworth Press, →ISBN, page 46
- He dropped out and waitered at the Spain but was fired for throwing water in a customer’s face.1993, Eric Gabriel Lehman, Quaspeck: A Novel, San Francisco, Calif.: Mercury House, →ISBN, page 102
waiter meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu
waiter in Hindi
- a server in a restaurant or similar
- वेटर veṭar, बैरा bairā
waiter in Tamil
- பரிமாறுநர், பரிசாரகர், மேசைப் பணியாளர்
waiter in Marathi
- वेटर, वेईटर, वेटरला
waiter in Urdu
- a server in a restaurant or similar
- ویٹَر veṭar, بَیرا bairā
More languagesFewer languages
- waiter in Bengali
- ওয়েটার ōẇeṭar
- waiter in Telugu
- వెయిటర్
- waiter in Malayalam
- ഹോട്ടൽ പരിചാരകൻ
- waiter in Kannada
- ತಂಡಾಯ, ಪರಿಚಾರಕ, ಸೇವಕ, ಮಾಣಿ
- waiter in Punjabi
- ਵੇਟਰ, ਵੇਈਟਰ
- waiter in Gujarati
- વેઈટર, વેટર, વેઇટર
- waiter in Odia
- ୱେଟର୍
- waiter in Nepali
- वेटर, वेटरलाई
- waiter in Arabic
- نَادِل nādil, نَادِلَة nādila
- waiter in Malay
- pelayan
- waiter in Indonesian
- pelayan
- waiter in Thai
- เด็กเสิร์ฟ dèk-sə̀əp, บ๋อย bɔ̌i, สาวเสิร์ฟ sǎao-sə̀əp
- waiter in Vietnamese
- người hầu bàn, chị hầu bàn, bồi
- waiter in Myanmar
- စားပွဲထိုး ca:pwai:htui:
Examples of waiter in a sentence
- Waiter: Would you like sparkling or flat? Guest: Flat, thank you.
- The waiter brought our orders to the table, but forgot the cutlery.
- Let me see if I can light a fire under the waiter to get our order sooner.
Forms of waiter
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | waiters |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | waiters |
| present participle | waitering |
| past participle | waitered |
| past | waitered |
Origin of waiter
From late 14th century Middle English waiter, wayter (“attendant, watchman”). By surface analysis, wait + -er. Sense of "servant who waits at tables" is from late 15th century, originally in reference to household servants; in reference to inns, eating houses, etc., it is attested from 1660s. Feminine form waitress first recorded 1834. The London Stock Exchange sense harks back to the early days of trading in coffee-shops.
Words formed from waiter
Phrases with waiter
Words that rhyme with waiter
- translator
- alligator
- vibrator
- freighter
- terminator
- crater
- curator
- gaiter
- incubator
- plater
- pulsator
- skater
48 more rhymesFewer rhymes
- cater
- collator
- creator
- dictator
- equator
- escalator
- greater
- later
- relator
- rotator
- collimator
- dilator
- excavator
- frater
- gator
- inflater
- locator
- narrator
- palpator
- saeter
- slater
- traitor
- viator
- awaiter
- baiter
- citator
- corrugator
- dater
- deflator
- dominator
- emasculator
- glossator
- gyrator
- hater
- hydrator
- legator
- levator
- mandator
- mater
- migrator
- negator
- nitrator
- plaiter
- procreator
- spectator
- tater
- titrator
- 'mater
Questions about waiter
- What does waiter mean?
- Waiter means a male or female attendant who serves customers at their tables in a restaurant, café or similar.
- What is waiter in Hindi?
- Waiter in Hindi is वेटर (veṭar), बैरा (bairā). See Waiter meaning in Hindi.
- What part of speech is waiter?
- Waiter can be a noun or a verb.
- How do you pronounce waiter?
- Waiter is pronounced /ˈweɪ̯təː/ (UK).
- What is the plural of waiter?
- The plural of waiter is waiters.
Words near waiter in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: waiter (page history and authors); waiter (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); waiter (Marathi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); waiter (Telugu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); waiter (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); waiter (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); waiter (Punjabi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); waiter (Gujarati, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); waiter (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); waiter (Nepali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). 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-waiter.ogg.
Cite this entry: “waiter.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/waiter. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.