waiting

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈweɪtɪŋ/
  • (US, Canada) IPA^(key): [ˈweɪ̯ɾɪŋ]

    • Audio (US):

      (file)

• Rhymes: -eɪtɪŋ

Etymology 1

From Middle English waitinge, waytynge, waitende, weytende, waitand, waytand, equivalent to wait +‎ -ing.

Verb

waiting

1. present participle and gerund of wait

   Your guest has been waiting for you. (progressive) They hurried into the waiting car. (participle used as adjective)

   • 1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter XIX, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC:

     At the far end of the houses the head gardener stood waiting for his mistress, and he gave her strips of bass to tie up her nosegay. This she did slowly and laboriously, with knuckly old fingers that shook.

Etymology 2

From Middle English waitynge, waytynge, equivalent to wait +‎ -ing.

Noun

waiting (countable and uncountable, plural waitings)

1. (obsolete) Watching, observation; keeping watch, guarding.
2. The act of staying or remaining in expectation.

   Waiting for something to happen is part of the job. (gerund) 

   • 1874, John Fiske, Outlines of Cosmic Philosophy, I. 122:

     In all ages, men have fought over words, without waiting to know what the words really signified.

   • 1876, Richard Watson Gilder, The New Day, A Poem in Songs and Sonnets:

     There was an awful waiting in the earth, / As if a mystery greatened to its birth.

3. Attendance, service.
   • 1872, George Eliot [pseudonym; Mary Ann Evans], chapter XXXVI, in Middlemarch […], volume II, Edinburgh, London: William Blackwood and Sons, →OCLC, book IV, page 227:

     But it had never occurred to him that he should live in any other than what he would have called an ordinary way, with green glasses for hock, and excellent waiting at table.

Derived terms

• call waiting
• -in-waiting
• in waiting
• ready and waiting
• waiting area
• waiting game
• waiting period
• waiting room
• waiting shed
• waiting shelter
• waiting time
• waiting time

 

Translations

the act of staying or remaining in expectation

• Bulgarian: чакане (bg) n (čakane), изчакване n (izčakvane)
• Dutch: wachten (nl), afwachten (nl)
• Finnish: odotus (fi), odottaminen (fi)
• French: attente (fr) f
• German: Warten (de) n
• Hungarian: várakozás (hu)
• Irish: fanacht f
• Italian: attesa (it) f, aspettazione f (uncommon), aspetto (it) m (archaic)
• Japanese: 待つこと (matsu koto)
• Ligurian: atéiza f
• Norwegian: vente (no)
• Polish: czekanie (pl) n
• Russian: ожида́ние (ru) n (ožidánije)
• Ukrainian: чека́ння n (čekánnja)

attendance, service

• Bulgarian: сервиране n (servirane), обслужване n (obslužvane)
• Dutch: bedienen (nl)
• Finnish: palvelu (fi)

References

• “waiting”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.