wait on

wait on (someone or something)

1. To serve a customer or patron. Is anyone waiting on table one?

2. To be awaiting someone or something in particular, and thus unable to proceed. I'm waiting on Carrie's response, so I don't have an answer to your question yet.

3. To visit someone in a formal show of respect. We must wait on the prince during his birthday festivities.

See also: on, wait

wait (up)on someone

Fig. to pay homage to someone. (Stilted.) Do you expect me to wait upon you like a member of some medieval court? She waited on her grown children as if they were gods and goddesses.

See also: on, wait

wait on

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.

See also: on, wait

wait on

or wait upon

v.

1. To serve the needs of someone or something; be in attendance on someone or something: The clerk waited on a customer.

2. To await someone or something: They're waiting on my decision.

3. To make a formal call on someone; visit someone: We waited on the mourning widow to pay our respects.

See also: on, wait