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Synonyms

in waiting

Idioms  

  1. In attendance, especially on a royal personage. For example, The prelates who were in waiting asked him to take the last rites. This usage has become less common with the diminution of royalty and royal courts but still survives. [Late 1600s]

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

It is spoken in hospital corridors and courtrooms, in waiting rooms and at kitchen tables, by those who keep pressing, keep trying, keep hoping.

From Slate • Mar. 29, 2026

As he spoke in the Oval Office on Monday, Vice President JD Vance hovered uncomfortably behind Trump’s left shoulder like a cartoon buzzard in waiting.

From Salon • Mar. 20, 2026

Phil will be without a music director, and with no one in waiting in the wings.

From Los Angeles Times • Mar. 17, 2026

They had a production deal at Netflix and another one at Spotify, and Harry secured millions of dollars to write his memoir, Spare, about a life in waiting.

From The Wall Street Journal • Mar. 11, 2026

People went to mosques for their ten raka’ts of noontime prayer and then retreated to whatever shade they could find to nap in, waiting for the cool of early evening.

From "The Kite Runner" by Khaled Hosseini

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.