wait on (someone or something)
wait on (someone or something)
1. To serve a customer or patron. Is anyone waiting on table one?
2. To await some particular person or thing before one is able to proceed. I'm waiting on Carrie's response, so I don't have an answer to your question yet.
3. To visit someone in a formal show of respect. We must wait on the prince during his birthday festivities.
See also: on, wait
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.
wait (up)on someone
Fig. to pay homage to someone. (Stilted.) Do you expect me to wait upon you like a member of some medieval court? She waited on her grown children as if they were gods and goddesses.
See also: on, wait
McGraw-Hill Dictionary of American Idioms and Phrasal Verbs.
wait on
1. Also, wait upon. Serve, minister to, especially for personal needs or in a store or restaurant. For example, Guests at the Inn should not expect to be waited on-they can make their own beds and get their own breakfast . [Early 1500s]
2. Make a formal call on, as in They waited on the ambassador. [c. 1500]
3. Also, wait upon. Await, remain in readiness for, as in We're waiting on their decision to close the school. This usage, a synonym of wait for, dates from the late 1600s but in the mid-1800s began to be criticized by many authorities. However, by the late 1900s it had come into increasingly wider use and is again largely accepted.
See also: on, wait
The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer.
wait on
or wait uponv.
1. To serve the needs of someone or something; be in attendance on someone or something: The clerk waited on a customer.
2. To await someone or something: They're waiting on my decision.
3. To make a formal call on someone; visit someone: We waited on the mourning widow to pay our respects.
See also: on, wait
The American Heritage® Dictionary of Phrasal Verbs.
- wait on
- waiting in the wings
- wait in the wings
- wait for the next wave
- watch the clock
- kick (one's) heels
- kick your heels
- wait
- wait around
- happen