[-ING1.]
1. The action of WAIT v.1 in various senses.
† a. A lying in wait, ambush. Also waiting for. Also fig. Obs.
c. 1200. Trin. Coll. Hom., 193. Shrudeð eow mid godes wapne, and werieð eow wið defles waitinge.
1340. Ayenb., 15. Zuo heþ þe dyeuel diverse maneres of waytinges.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 513/2. Waytynge to don harme, insidie.
1526. Tindale, Acts xii. 11. The lorde hath … delyvered me … from all the waytynge fore of the people of the iewes.
† b. Watching, observation. Obs.
1377. Langl., P. Pl., B. II. 89. Lecherye … As in werkes and in wordes and waitynges with eies.
c. 1430. Syr Gener. (Roxb.), 4560. But he perceiued hir noo thing From the toure of hir wayting.
1526. Tindale, Luke xvii. 20. The kyngdom of God commeth not with waytingefore.
c. Expectation; remaining stationary or quiescent in expectation of something. In waiting (predicatively): in a state of expectancy, remaining in one place or condition so as to be ready for some expected event: = waiting pres. pple.
1743. T. Jones, in Buccleuch MSS. (Hist. MSS. Comm.), I. 402. After 24 hours’ waiting, the troops were obliged to retire.
1760–72. H. Brooke, Fool of Qual. (1809), III. 142. While the coach was in waiting, and they all stood on the hill.
1818. Byron, Lett. to Murray, 17 July. I am still in waiting for Hanson’s clerk, but luckily not at Geneva.
1853. Dickens, Bleak Ho., xxiii. I thought … I would ask Richard to be in waiting for me at the coach-office, that we might have a little talk together.
1885. Payn, Talk of Town, II. 147. A closed carriage, well appointed, was at the door, in waiting for her, and they took their seats.
1889. Bridges, Growth Love, lxiii. I abide and abide, as if more stout and tall My spirit would grow by waiting like a tree.
d. Attendance upon a superior.
c. 1560. A. Scott, Poems (S.T.S.), xxvi. 61. Thay wald haif wating on alway, But gwerdoun, genȝeild, or regaird.
1774. J. Bryant, Mythol., I. 102. Camillus had the name of Hermes from the similarity of his office, which was waiting upon the Gods.
e. Official attendance at court; one’s period or term of such attendance. In waiting: on duty, in attendance (said e.g. of a maid of honour, a lord- or lady-in-waiting, a court official).
For groom-in-waiting, lady-in-waiting, lord-in-waiting, see the first element.
1697. J. Lewis, Mem. Dk. Glocester (1789), 24. When the Princess asked him, who taught him so? he said, Lewis; then, said her Highness, Lewis shall be turned out of waiting.
1705. Luttrell, Brief Rel. (1857), V. 620. The dutchesse of St. Albans being made one of the ladies of the bedchamber to the queen … begun her first waiting on Monday.
1726. Swift, Gulliver, II. iii. His Majesty sent for three great scholars, who were then in their weekly waiting, according to the custom in that country.
1730. R. Gale in Mem. W. Stukeley (Surtees), I. 235. Lady Pembroke is in waiting at Windsor.
1765. Earl Coventry, in Jesse, Selwyn & Contemp. (1843), I. 402. The letter I had from Lord March … offering to take my waiting the first of next month, in exchange of his own, which is not till the 29th.
1849. Macaulay, Hist. Eng., iv. I. 433. The prelates who were in waiting had from the first exhorted him to prepare for his end.
1912. Mrs. H. Wyndham, Corr. Sarah Lady Lyttelton, xi. 285. This is the last letter of interest during Lady Lyttelton’s first waiting.
2. attrib. a. Consisting of, or characterized by, waiting (in various senses of the verb WAIT). Sometimes hyphened to the sb. qualified.
1553. Eden, Treat. New Ind. (Arb.), 25. [They] distribute their wayting dayes after this order.
1740. trans. De Mouhy’s Fort. Country Maid (1741), II. 366. I had hired a Waiting Jobb, by the month.
1903. Times, 6 May, 14/3. Consumers hoping—somewhat unreasonably, many contend—that a waiting policy may bring some relaxation in values. Ibid. (1912), 19 Oct., 5/2. Rumania will … order the mobilization of these Army Corps, abandoning her waiting attitude.
b. Intended to be used or occupied while waiting, as waiting-chamber, -lobby; also WAITING-ROOM.
a. 1562. G. Cavendish, Wolsey (1893), 102. The first *waytyng chamber was hanged with fynne arras.
1912. J. E. C. Bodley, Card. Manning, 19. For Newman the Oriel Common-room was a home. For Manning the Merton Common-room was an unfamiliar waiting-chamber on the road to a profession.
1837. Civil Engin. & Arch. Jrnl., I. 7/1. By suspending them in the *waiting-lobbies, the impatient moments of parties might be close occupied.
c. Special comb.: † waiting board, salver, a tray intended to be carried by one waiting at table; waiting game, used to describe the tactics of a player who abstains from attempting to secure advantages in the earlier part of the game, with a view to more effective action at a later stage; also fig.; waiting race, a race in which the superiority of the winner is designedly not displayed till near the end of the course; also fig.; † waiting Sunday, ? a Sunday on which the town-council publicly attended the mayor to church.
1770. Lady Mary Coke, Jrnl., 19 June (1892), III. 247. I bought tea, fans, japan *waiting board, walking sticks, &c.
1890. Times, 27 Dec., 9/1. The best policy seems to dictate a *waiting game.
1914. Eng. Hist. Rev., April, 256. The precarious health of Elizabeth … made it desirable to play a waiting game in the east and to shower blows on Bohemia and Moravia.
1883. Mrs. E. Kennard, Right Sort, xx. Mrs. Forrester will ride a *waiting race throughout.
1885. ‘Mrs. Alexander,’ At Bay, vi. You can do no good,—as they didn’t find her within the first week it will just be a waiting race.
1886. Earl Suffolk & Berksh., Racing, xiv. (Badm. Libr.), 224. The style in which Buckle … particularly shone was in riding a waiting race…. ‘None of your lying off and winning in the last stride for me,’ would the owner of Euclid exclaim.
1714. Lond. Gaz., No. 5286/4. Two *waiting Salvors.
1767. in Picton, L’pool Munic. Rec. (1886), II. 197. The future dress … for the Aldermen … to be by them worn only on the *Waiting Sundays and other public state days.
