Search the Dictionary

An authoritative order requiring obedience; a mandate; an injunction. A waiting what command their mighty chief Had to impose. Milton.

, our carnal stings, our unbitted lusts. Shak. To cool the heels, to dance attendance; to wait, as for admission to a patron's house. [Colloq.] Dryden.

bend down; to stoop low; to lie close to the ground with the logs bent, as an animal when waiting for prey, or in fear. Now crouch like a cur. Beau. & Fl.

e on his knee. Shak. To dance attendance, to come and go obsequiously; to be or remain in waiting, at the beck and call of another, with a view to please or gain favor. A man of his place, and so near our favor, To dance attendance on their lordships' pleasure. Shak.

gainst; as, victory declares against the allies. Like fawning courtiers, for success they wait, And then come smiling, and declare for fate. Dryden.

To put off; to delay to act; to wait. Pius was able to defer and temporize at leisure. J. A. Symonds.

ssion of spirits; discouragement. [R.] Procter, in evident distress and dispiritment, was waiting the slow conclusion of this. Carlyle.

om a distance. W. Irving. 'T is distance lends enchantment to the view. T. Campbell. [He] waits at distance till he hears from Cato. Addison.

One who draws liquor for guests; a waiter in a taproom. Shak.

The chief lady in waiting on the queen of Spain. Brande.

A man who manages, or waits on, an engine.

To wait on as an esquire or attendant in public; to attend. [Colloq.]

To wait for; to await. [Obs.] Let's in, and there expect their coming. Shak.

That which is expected, or looked or waited for with interest; the object of expectation or hope. The expectancy and rose of the fair state. Shak. Estate in expectancy (Law), one the possession of which a person is entitled to have at some future time, either as a remainder or reversion, or on the death of some one. Bu…

Waiting in expectation; looking for; (Med.)

g forward to an event as about to happen. "In expectation of a guest." Tennyson. My soul, wait thou only upon God, for my expectation is from him. Ps. lxii. 5.

her way the fates allow. Dryden. Let me add a farther Truth. Dryden. Some farther change awaits us. MIlton.

A man in waiting; a male servant whose duties are to attend the door, the carriage, the table, etc.

The act of forbearing or waiting; the exercise of patience. He soon shall findForbearance no acquittance ere day end. Milton.

or when it is once past, there is no recalling it. Swift. On occasion's forelock watchful wait. Milton.