await
verbnouncommon in dialogue
- United Kingdom//əˈweɪt//
To wait for.
verb
- 1
To wait for.
I await your reply to my letter.
Betwixt these rocky pillars Gabriel sat, / Chief of the angelic guards, awaiting night;
I had occasion […] to make a somewhat long business trip to Chicago, and on my return […] I found Farrar awaiting me in the railway station. He smiled his wonted fraction by way of greeting, […], and finally leading me to his buggy, turned and drove out of town.
In love, however, women are brave. How many clamber over rooftops of houses and palaces, and are still doing it, when their lovers await them!
- 2
To expect.
- 3
To be in store for; to be ready or in waiting for.
Glorious rewards await the good in heaven; eternal suffering awaits mortal sinners in hell.
Standing foursquare in the heart of the town, at the intersection of the two main streets, a "jog" at each street corner left around the market-house a little public square, which at this hour was well occupied by carts and wagons from the country and empty drays awaiting hire.
O Eve, some further change awaits us nigh.
- 4
To serve or attend; to wait on, wait upon.
- 5
To watch, observe.
- 6
To wait; to stay in waiting.
These are exotic lands where great adventures await.
Etymology
From Middle English awaiten, from Old Northern French awaitier (“to lie in wait for, watch, observe”), originally especially with a hostile sense; itself from a- (“to”) + waitier (“to watch”). More at English wait.
noun
- 1
obsoleteA waiting for; ambush.
- 2
obsoleteWatching, watchfulness, suspicious observation.
Also, madame, syte you well that there be many men spekith of oure love in this courte, and have you and me gretely in awayte, as thes Sir Aggravayne and Sir Mordred.
For all that night, the whyles the Prince did rest […] He watcht in close awayt with weapons prest […]
Forms
- plural
- awaits
- past tense
- awaited
- past participle
- awaited
- present participle
- awaiting
- third person singular
- awaits