WAIT, verb intransitive [The sense is to stop, or to continue.]

1. To stay or rest in expectation; to stop or remain stationary, till the arrival of some person or event. Thus we say, I went to the place of meeting, and there waited an hour for the moderator or chairman. I will go to the hotel, and there wait till you come. We will wait for the mail.

2. To stay proceedings, or suspend any business, in expectation of some person, event, or the arrival of some hour. The court was obliged to wait for a witness.

3. To rest in expectation and patience.

All the days of my appointed time will I wait till my change come. Job 14:14.

4. To stay; not to depart.

Haste, my dear father, tis no time to wait

5. To stay; to continue by reason of hindrance.

6. To lie in ambush, as an enemy.

Such ambush waited to intercept thy way.

To wait on or upon, to attend, as a servant; to perform menial services for; as, to wait on a gentleman; to wait on the table.

To wait on,

1. To attend; to go to see; to visit on business or for ceremony. Tell the gentleman I will wait on him at ten oclock.

2. To pay servile or submissive attendance.

3. To follow, as a consequence; as the ruin that waits on such a supine temper. [Instead of this, we use await.]

4. To look watchfully.

It is a point of cunning to wait on him with whom you speak, with your eye. [Unusual.]

5. To attend to; to perform.

Aaron and his sons shall wait on their priests office. Numbers 3:10, 8. Romans 12:7.

6. To be ready to serve; to obey. Psalms 25:3. Proverbs 20:22.

To wait at, to attend in service; to perform service at. 1 Corinthians 9:13.

To wait for, to watch, as an enemy. Job 15:22.

WAIT, verb transitive

1. To stay for; to rest or remain stationary in expectation of the arrival of.

Awd with these words, in camps they still abide, and wait with longing eyes their promisd guide. [Elliptical for wait for.]

2. To attend; to accompany with submission or respect.

He chose a thousand horse, the flowr of all his warlike troops, to wait the funeral. [This use is not justifiable, but by poetical license.]

3. To attend as a consequence of something.

Such doom waits luxury--

[Not in use. In this sense we use attend or attend on.]

WAIT, noun Ambush. As a noun, this word is used only in certain phrases. To lie in wait is to lie in ambush; to be secreted in order to fall by surprise on an enemy; hence figuratively, to lay snares, or to make insidious attempts, or to watch for the purpose of ensnaring. Joshua 8:4.

In wait is used in a like sense by Milton.

To lay wait to set an ambush. Jeremiah 9:8.