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

Discovery, but increased content investments and competition mean investors should wait on the sidelines for now, says a Wells Fargo analyst.

From Barron's

“What we saw this week was a rising generation of Angelenos and working class people saying we don’t have the luxury of waiting on a decision,” she told The Times.

From Los Angeles Times

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

“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

Forest made their hosts wait on the pitch almost four minutes before emerging for the second half, Tottenham will have wished they had stayed in the dressing room.

From BBC