wait and see

To act with caution and patience until something happens. I guess I just have to wait and see until the doctor calls with the test results.

Hesitant, skeptical, or circumspect, as of a mindset, outlook, or tactic. With all due respect, the situation is too dire for this kind of wait-and-see approach. The boss has always had this wait-and-see attitude when it comes to new market opportunities, which can be maddening when you're trying to tap into a fresh revenue stream.

Bide one's time for events to run their course, as in Do you think they'll raise taxes?-We'll have to wait and see. This expression was first recorded in Daniel Defoe's Robinson Crusoe (1719): "We had no remedy but to wait and see." In Britain the phrase became associated with Prime Minister H.H. Asquith, who in 1910 so often said it to the opposition regarding an impending bill that he became known as "Old Wait and See."

Bide one’s time and await developments. Daniel Defoe used this term in Robinson Crusoe (1719): “We had no remedy but to wait and see.” In England it became firmly associated with Prime Minister H. H. Asquith, because it was his repeated reply to demands by the opposition that he reveal in advance, against precedent, the terms of an impending bill to the members of the House of Commons (1910). A popular song making fun of Asquith did much to perpetuate his new nickname, Old Wait and See.