Other forms: waiting, waited, waits
Wait is what you do when there is nothing to do but stay there until something happens. Standing at a bus stop in the rain, sitting in a doctor's waiting room, holding the phone while a recorded voice tells you where you are in the queue.
Wait takes for in front of a person or thing: wait for me, wait for the kettle, wait for the results. Never wait me. It works as a noun too — a long wait, a two-hour wait at the border. Things can wait as well as people: the washing-up can wait. There is a separate older use, to wait on someone, meaning to serve them at a table, which is where waiter comes from. In speech, wait on its own stops the other person: wait, say that again. And I can't wait is the opposite of patience — it means you are excited.
1verbwaitTo stay where you are, or do nothing, until something happens.~71%
“We waited outside the cinema for twenty minutes.”
synonyms: hang on, hold on
2verbleftTo be left undone until a later time.~2%
“The washing-up can wait until tomorrow.”
3nounperiodA period of time spent waiting.~18%
“There was a long wait at passport control.”
4verbserveTo serve food and drink to people at a table.~9%
“He waits tables at a hotel three evenings a week.”
Shares are an estimate: a language model read 12 sentences found in the wild and placed 11 of them on a sense (1 were unclear) — a count of our sample, not a measurement of English.
Wait came in with the Normans, from Anglo-Norman waitier, and behind that Frankish *wahtwēn, 'to watch, to guard'. It belongs to the same family as English watch. To wait was once to stand guard with your eyes open, which is why an ambush is still called lying in wait.
Proto-Indo-European
*weǵ-
Frankish
*wahtwēn — to watch, guard
Anglo-Norman
waiter
Middle English
waiten
English, today
wait
From Middle English waiten, from Anglo-Norman waiter, waitier (compare French guetter from Old French gaitier, guaitier), from Frankish wahtwēn (“to watch, guard”), derivative of Frankish wahtu (“guard, watch”), from Proto-Germanic wahtwō (“guard, watch”), from Proto-Indo-European weǵ- (“to be fresh, cheerful, awake”). Cognate with Old High German wahtēn (“to watch, guard”), German Low German wachten (“to wait”), Dutch wachten (“to wait, expect”), French guetter (“to watch out for”), stq wachtje (“to wait”), West Frisian wachtsje (“to wait”), frr wachtjen (“to stand, stay put”). More at watch. In some senses, merged or influenced by Middle English waiten, weiten (“to do good to, lie in wait for, to contrive good or harm on, catch, snare”), from Old Norse veita (“to give help to, assist, grant, cause to happen”), from Proto-Germanic waitijaną (“to show, guide, advise, direct”), from Proto-Indo-European weyd- (“to see, know”).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA