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WAIT ON
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I. (verb)
Sense 1
Meaning:
Work for or be a servant to
Example:
The minister served the King for many years
Synonyms:
assist; attend; attend to; serve; wait on
Classified under:
Verbs of political and social activities and events
Hypernyms (to "wait on" is one way to...):
aid; assist; help (give help or assistance; be of service)
Verb group:
serve (devote (part of) one's life or efforts to, as of countries, institutions, or ideas)
Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "wait on"):
valet (serve as a personal attendant to)
fag (act as a servant for older boys, in British public schools)
Sentence frames:
Somebody ----s somebody
Somebody ----s somebody with something
Sentence example:
Sam cannot wait on Sue
Context examples:
She had been the only one of the set absent, for Sir Walter and Elizabeth had not only been quite at her ladyship's service themselves, but had actually been happy to be employed by her in collecting others, and had been at the trouble of inviting both Lady Russell and Mr Elliot; and Mr Elliot had made a point of leaving Colonel Wallis early, and Lady Russell had fresh arranged all her evening engagements in order to wait on her.
(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)
Accordingly, the next time I had the honour to see our emperor, I desired his general license to wait on the Blefuscudian monarch, which he was pleased to grant me, as I could perceive, in a very cold manner; but could not guess the reason, till I had a whisper from a certain person, that Flimnap and Bolgolam had represented my intercourse with those ambassadors as a mark of disaffection; from which I am sure my heart was wholly free.
(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)
I find you lonely: I will be your companion—to read to you, to walk with you, to sit with you, to wait on you, to be eyes and hands to you.
(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)
Well, all I know is, that it will be abominably rude if you do not wait on him.
(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)
It will be much the best place for her, so near Miss Lee, and not far from the girls, and close by the housemaids, who could either of them help to dress her, you know, and take care of her clothes, for I suppose you would not think it fair to expect Ellis to wait on her as well as the others.
(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)
I made the best excuses I could for not having been able to wait on him and Mrs. Elton on this happy occasion; I said that I hoped I should in the course of the summer.
(Emma, by Jane Austen)
The morning hours of the Cottage were always later than those of the other house, and on the morrow the difference was so great that Mary and Anne were not more than beginning breakfast when Charles came in to say that they were just setting off, that he was come for his dogs, that his sisters were following with Captain Wentworth; his sisters meaning to visit Mary and the child, and Captain Wentworth proposing also to wait on her for a few minutes if not inconvenient; and though Charles had answered for the child's being in no such state as could make it inconvenient, Captain Wentworth would not be satisfied without his running on to give notice.
(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)
I declare, it really seems like being a fine young lady, to come home from the party in a carriage and sit in my dressing gown with a maid to wait on me, said Meg, as Jo bound up her foot with arnica and brushed her hair.
(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)
A crippled man, twenty years older than you, whom you will have to wait on?
(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)
But at length, by Elizabeth's persuasion, he was prevailed on to overlook the offence, and seek a reconciliation; and, after a little further resistance on the part of his aunt, her resentment gave way, either to her affection for him, or her curiosity to see how his wife conducted herself; and she condescended to wait on them at Pemberley, in spite of that pollution which its woods had received, not merely from the presence of such a mistress, but the visits of her uncle and aunt from the city.
(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)
