"But [unless] ye wait well and be privy,
I wot right well, I am but dead," quoth she. Chaucer.

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

They also serve who only stand and wait. Milton.

Haste, my dear father; 't is no time to wait. Dryden.

To wait on or upon. (a) To attend, as a servant; to perform services for; as, to wait on a gentleman; to wait on the table. "Authority and reason on her wait." Milton. "I must wait on myself, must I?" Shak. (b) To attend; to go to see; to visit on business or for ceremony. (c) To follow, as a consequence; to await. "That ruin that waits on such a supine temper." Dr. H. More. (d) To look watchfully at; to follow with the eye; to watch. [R.] "It is a point of cunning to wait upon him with whom you speak with your eye." Bacon. (e) To attend to; to perform. "Aaron and his sons . . . shall wait on their priest's office." Num. iii. 10. (f) (Falconry) To fly above its master, waiting till game is sprung; -- said of a hawk. Encyc. Brit.

Awed with these words, in camps they still abide,
And wait with longing looks their promised guide. Dryden.

He chose a thousand horse, the flower of all
His warlike troops, to wait the funeral. Dryden.

Remorse and heaviness of heart shall wait thee,
And everlasting anguish be thy portion. Rowe.

There is a wait of three hours at the border Mexican town of El Paso. S. B. Griffin.

Hark! are the waits abroad? Beau *** Fl.

The sound of the waits, rude as may be their minstrelsy, breaks upon the mild watches of a winter night with the effect of perfect harmony. W. Irving.

To lay wait, to prepare an ambuscade. -- To lie in wait. See under 4th Lie.