wait on
Britishverb
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to serve at the table of
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to act as an attendant or servant to
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archaic to visit
interjection
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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]
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Make a formal call on, as in They waited on the ambassador . [c. 1500]
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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.
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.
But the question of whether it made cynical sense to hack the situation’s geopolitics stuck with me: Should people wait on war developments to book their flights?
From Slate • May 12, 2026
Companies now wait on average some 12 years to go public, compared with five in 1999-2000.
From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 27, 2026
“I will not wait on events while dangers gather,” he declared to Congress, laying the groundwork for preemptive action.
From Salon • Apr. 8, 2026
On the streets of Beirut, the displaced continued to wait on Friday to see if the bombing would increase.
From BBC • Mar. 6, 2026
Each morning, a gaggle of them would wait on the water for Brightbill to lead them into the sky.
From "The Wild Robot" by Peter Brown
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.
