wait on

British  

verb

1. to serve at the table of

2. to act as an attendant or servant to

3. archaic to visit

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interjection

1. stop! hold on!

wait on Idioms  

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.

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Example Sentences

That back and forth may have investors feeling uneasy, but they don’t have to wait on the sidelines entirely until the hostilities end.

From Barron's • Mar. 25, 2026

“Copy, yeah, we prefer to wait on a gate, but I mean, again, we only got so much time here because there's still a bit of an odor in the back of the airplane.”

From The Wall Street Journal • Mar. 24, 2026

But a tougher test lies in wait on Thursday, when Mouat and his boys face Sweden - who beat them in the 2022 final - at 13:05 GMT live on the BBC.

From BBC • Feb. 11, 2026

We cannot just wait on anyone, especially not celebrities, to change institutions without some people power to back them up.

From Los Angeles Times • Feb. 5, 2026

As you know, I used to wait on a friend of yours.

From "The Help" by Kathryn Stockett