wait-a-bit
Americannoun
noun
Etymology
Origin of wait-a-bit
1775–85; translation of Afrikaans wag-'n-bietjie < Dutch wacht een beetje
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 Kim Alexander, head of the nonpartisan California Voter Foundation, falls into the wait-a-bit camp.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 3, 2026
After a fourteen miles' march the troop reached the Zwart Kop river, and, crossing the ford, encamped among the scattered mimosas and numerous wait-a-bit thorns.
From The Curse of Carne's Hold A Tale of Adventure by G. A. (George Alfred) Henty
Many a man has been so detained in the Bush, riding inadvertently against the "wait-a-bit" or "lawyer cane."
From Queensland Cousins by Eleanor Luisa Haverfield
The lion held up the river's bank for a short distance and took away through some wait-a-bit thorn cover, the best he could find, but nevertheless open.
From Forest and Frontiers Or, Adventures Among the Indians by Roualeyn Gordon-Cumming
The wheels also were locked, and the space between the ground and the bed-planks of the waggons was stuffed with branches of the "wait-a-bit" thorn that fortunately grew near in considerable quantities.
From Allan's Wife by Henry Rider Haggard
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.
