wait
IPA: wˈeɪt
noun
- A delay.
- An ambush.
- (obsolete) One who watches; a watchman.
- (in the plural, obsolete, UK) Hautboys, or oboes, played by town musicians.
- (in the plural, UK) Musicians who sing or play at night or in the early morning, especially at Christmas time; serenaders; musical watchmen. [formerly waites, wayghtes.]
- A surname.
- (computing) Short for wait state. [(computing) Any of several instances in which a computer's processor cannot execute instructions (either for the entire computer, or just for a specific task) until an I/O operation completes, or until an interrupt is resolved]
verb
- (transitive, now rare) To delay movement or action until the arrival or occurrence of; to await. (Now generally superseded by “wait for”.)
- (intransitive) To delay movement or action until some event or time; to remain neglected or in readiness.
- (intransitive, stative, US) To wait tables; to serve customers in a restaurant or other eating establishment.
- (transitive, obsolete) To attend on; to accompany; especially, to attend with ceremony or respect.
- (obsolete) To attend as a consequence; to follow upon; to accompany.
- (obsolete, colloquial) To defer or postpone (especially a meal).
- (obsolete, except in phrases) To watch with malicious intent; to lie in wait
- (intransitive) To remain faithful to one’s partner or betrothed during a prolonged period of absence.
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Examples of "wait" in Sentences
- During a typical mid-week afternoon the wait is about 15-20 minutes.
- But I have to wait such a long time for it (because all the time I have to wait is to long).
- September 9th, 2008 9:00 pm ET wait for it…..wait for it…..here comes her hillary-ous punch line…..in just 10 seconds
- Line was about 40-45 people, guessing the wait is at least half an hour – too long based on my time/cost benefit analysis.
- Thus, an infixed - um - is characteristic of many intransitive verbs with personal pronominal suffixes, e.g., sad - to wait, sumid-ak I wait; kineg silent, kuminek-ak I am silent.
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