Main Entry: ¹wait

Pronunciation: \ˈwāt\

Function: verb

Etymology: Middle English, from Anglo-French waiter, guaiter to watch over, await, of Germanic origin; akin to Old High German wahta watch, Old English wæccan to watch — more at wake

Date: 14th century

transitive verb 1 : to stay in place in expectation of : await <waited the result of the advertisement — W. M. Thackeray> <wait your turn>
2 : to delay serving (a meal)
3 : to serve as waiter for <wait tables>intransitive verb 1 a : to remain stationary in readiness or expectation <wait for a train> b : to pause for another to catch up —usually used with up
2 a : to look forward expectantly <just waiting to see his rival lose> b : to hold back expectantly <waiting for a chance to strike>
3 : to serve at meals —usually used in such phrases as wait on tables or wait on table
4 a : to be ready and available <slippers waiting by the bed> b : to remain temporarily neglected or unrealized <the chores can wait>

— wait on also wait upon 1 a : to attend as a servant b : to supply the wants of : serve
2 : to make a formal call on
3 : to wait for

— wait up : to delay going to bed : stay up

usage American dialectologists have evidence showing wait on (sense 3) to be more a Southern than a Northern form in speech. Handbook writers universally denigrate wait on and prescribe wait for in writing. Our evidence from printed sources does not show a regional preference; it does show that the handbooks' advice is not based on current usage <settlement of the big problems still waited on Russia — Time> <I couldn't make out…whether Harper was waiting on me for approval — E. B. White> <the staggering bill that waited on them at the white commissary downtown — Maya Angelou>. One reason for the continuing use of wait on may lie in its being able to suggest protracted or irritating waits better than wait for <for two days I've been waiting on weather — Charles A. Lindbergh> <the boredom of black Africans sitting there, waiting on the whims of a colonial bureaucracy — Vincent Canby> <doesn't care to sit around waiting on a House that's virtually paralyzed — Glenn A. Briere>. Wait on is less common than wait for, but if it seems natural, there is no reason to avoid it.