1. A customs officer who awaited the arrival of ships (formerly coming in with the tide), and boarded them to prevent the evasion of the custom-house regulations. Now Hist.
1699. Farquhar, Constant Couple, I. i. These tidewaiters and surveyors plague us more with the French wines, than the war did with the French privateers.
1754. Richardson, Grandison (1781), I. xxxv. 247. That I shall get employment on the Keys, or as a tide-waiter extraordinary.
1821. J. Smyth, Pract. of Customs, 3. Upon the receipt of the Warrants, the Landing-waiter is to give an order to the Tide-waiter on board the Ship, without which no Goods can be permitted to be unladen.
1876. Smiles, Sc. Natur., xiii. 267. He was willing to be a police officer, a tidewaiter, or anything that would bring in a proper maintenance.
2. fig. One who waits for a favorable season.
1841. Miall, in Nonconf., I. 249. The tide-waiters and time-servers of reform are evidently at a discount.
1901. Daily News, 15 Feb., 6/5. Political tidewaiters, whose loyalty … may ultimately be reconciled with high salaried posts.
Hence Tide-waitership, the office of a tide-waiter.
1855. Thackeray, Newcomes, xi. He would ask the minister for a tide-waitership for him.
1866. Lowell, Presid. on Stump, Prose Wks. 1890, V. 265. His own chance of reëlection, or that of some fourth cousin to a tidewaitership.
