Showing results for "waiting"

• present participle of wait.

waiting

American  

[way-ting] / ˈweɪ tɪŋ /

noun

1. a period of waiting; pause, interval, or delay.

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adjective

1. serving or being in attendance.

   waiting man;

   waiting maid;

   waiting woman.

idioms

1. in waiting, in attendance, as upon a royal personage.

Other Word Forms

• waitingly
  adverb

Etymology

Origin of waiting

First recorded in 1150–1200; Middle English (noun); see wait, -ing ¹, -ing ²

Explanation

The act of standing by without acting as you anticipate a future event or time is waiting. Waiting can be agonizing, especially waiting for something vitally important, like election results — or your birthday. The word waiting is a noun used for a kind of action that's characterized by inaction or delay: "Generations of waiting produced no change in a city's discriminatory policies, so citizens planned a protest march." It's also a useful adjective, for things like waiting rooms, waiting lists, and waiting periods. In the old days the word was also used for certain servants, lords or ladies "in waiting" who waited on their employers.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

waiting

In other dramatic scenes, protesters were seen holding on to one another as they were dragged to waiting buses -- only for them to later wriggle out from the driver's seat or the rear window.

From Barron's ● Oct. 13, 2026

Abu Agila Mohammad Mas'ud Kheir Al-Marimi has alleged he was abducted by armed men and handed over "hooded and bound" to FBI agents, who had a plane waiting to fly him out of the country.

From BBC ● Oct. 12, 2026

The market is still waiting for AI frontier developers to go public.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 12, 2026

The Ukrainian leader welcomed the proposed ceasefire but emphasized that Kyiv was still waiting for details from Washington and a response from Moscow.

From Salon ● Oct. 11, 2026

“I was hanging out with a friend who lives near here. And now I’m just waiting for my Uber.”

From "Split the Sky" by Marie Arnold

Related Words

• accessible
• apt
• handy
• qualified
• ripe