The Gutenberg Webster's Unabridged Dictionary
Chapter 1860
To wait on ∨ 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.
Wait <Xpage=1623>
Wait (?) , v. t. 1. To stay for; to rest or remain stationary in expectation of; to await; as, to wait orders .
Awed with these words, in camps they still abide, And wait with longing looks their promised guide. Dryden.
2. To attend as a consequence; to follow upon; to accompany; to await. [Obs.]
3. To attend on; to accompany; especially, to attend with ceremony or respect. [Obs.]
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.
4. To cause to wait; to defer; to postpone; -- said of a meal; as, to wait dinner . [Colloq.]
Wait <Xpage=1623>
Wait , n. [OF. waite , guaite , gaite , F. guet watch, watching, guard, from OHG. wahta . See Wait , v. i. ]
1. The act of waiting; a delay; a halt.
There is a wait of three hours at the border Mexican town of El Paso. S. B. Griffin.
2. Ambush. "An enemy in wait ."
Milton.
3. One who watches; a watchman. [Obs.]
4. pl. Hautboys, or oboes, played by town musicians; not used in the singular. [Obs.]
Halliwell.
5. pl. Musicians who sing or play at night or in the early morning, especially at Christmas time; serenaders; musical watchmen. [Written formerly wayghtes .]
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 .
Waiter <Xpage=1623>
Wait"er (?) , n. 1. One who, or that which, waits; an attendant; a servant in attendance, esp. at table.
The waiters stand in ranks; the yeomen cry, "Make room," as if a duke were passing by. Swift.
2. A vessel or tray on which something is carried, as dishes, etc.; a salver.
Coast waiter . See under Coast , n.
Waiting <Xpage=1623>
Wait"ing , a. & n. from Wait , v.
In waiting , in attendance; as, lords in waiting . [Eng.] -- Waiting gentlewoman , a woman who waits upon a person of rank. -- Waiting maid , Waiting woman , a maid or woman who waits upon another as a personal servant.
Waitingly <Xpage=1623>
Wait"ing*ly , adv. By waiting.
Waitress <Xpage=1623>
Wait"ress (?) , n. A female waiter or attendant; a waiting maid or waiting woman. <-- esp. one employed in a commercial dining establishment, who takes the customers' orders, brings the meals, and otherwise serves the customers who are seated at a table or counter. -->
Waive <Xpage=1623>
Waive (?) , n. [See Waive , v. t. ] 1. A waif; a castaway. [Obs.]
Donne.
2. (O. Eng. Law) A woman put out of the protection of the law. See Waive , v. t. , 3 (b) , and the Note.
Waive <Xpage=1623>
Waive , v. t. [ imp. & p. p. Waived (?) ; p. pr. & vb. n. Waiving .] [OE. waiven , weiven , to set aside, remove, OF. weyver , quesver , to waive, of Scand. origin; cf. Icel. veifa to wave, to vibrate, akin to Skr. vip to tremble. Cf. Vibrate , Waif .] [Written also wave .]
1. To relinquish; to give up claim to; not to insist on or claim; to refuse; to forego.
He waiveth milk, and flesh, and all. Chaucer.
We absolutely do renounce or waive our own opinions, absolutely yielding to the direction of others. Barrow.
2. To throw away; to cast off; to reject; to desert.
3. (Law) (a) To throw away; to relinquish voluntarily, as a right which one may enforce if he chooses. (b) (O. Eng. Law) To desert; to abandon.
Burrill.
&hand; The term was applied to a woman, in the same sense as outlaw to a man. A woman could not be outlawed , in the proper sense of the word, because, according to Bracton, she was never in law , that is, in a frankpledge or decennary; but she might be waived , and held as abandoned.
Burrill.
Waive <Xpage=1623>
Waive , v. i. To turn aside; to recede. [Obs.]
To waive from the word of Solomon. Chaucer.
Waiver <Xpage=1623>
Waiv"er (?) , n. (Law) The act of waiving, or not insisting on, some right, claim, or privilege.
Waivure <Xpage=1623>
Waiv"ure (?) , n. See Waiver . [R.]
Waiwode <Xpage=1623>
Wai"wode (?) , n. See Waywode .
Wake <Xpage=1623>
Wake (?) , n. [Originally, an open space of water s<?/rrounded by ice, and then, the passage cut through ice for a vessel, probably of Scand. origin; cf. Icel. v\'94k a hole, opening in ice, Sw. vak , Dan. vaage , perhaps akin to E. humid .] The track left by a vessel in the water; by extension, any track; as, the wake of an army .
This effect followed immediately in the wake of his earliest exertions. De Quincey.
Several humbler persons . . . formed quite a procession in the dusty wake of his chariot wheels. Thackeray.
Wake <Xpage=1623>
Wake , v. i. [ imp. & p. p. Waked (?) or Woke (<?/); p. pr. & vb. n. Waking .] [AS. wacan , wacian ; akin to OFries. waka , OS. wak<?/n , D. waken , G. wachen , OHG. wahh<?/n , Icel. vaka , Sw. vaken , Dan. vaage , Goth. wakan , v. i., us wakjan , v. t., Skr. v\'bejay to rouse, to impel. <?/<?/<?/<?/. Cf. Vigil , Wait , v. i. , Watch , v. i. ]
1. To be or to continue awake; to watch; not to sleep.
The father waketh for the daughter. Ecclus. xlii. 9.
Though wisdom wake , suspicion sleeps. Milton.
I can not think any time, waking or sleeping, without being sensible of it. Locke.
2. To sit up late festive purposes; to hold a night revel.
The king doth wake to-night, and takes his rouse, Keeps wassail, and the swaggering upspring reels. Shak.
3. To be excited or roused from sleep; to awake; to be awakened; to cease to sleep; -- often with up .
He infallibly woke up at the sound of the concluding doxology. G. Eliot.
4. To be exited or roused up; to be stirred up from a dormant, torpid, or inactive state; to be active.
Gentle airs due at their hour To fan the earth now waked . Milton.
Then wake , my soul, to high desires. Keble.
Wake <Xpage=1623>
Wake (?) , v. t. 1. To rouse from sleep; to awake.
The angel . . . came again and waked me. Zech. iv. 1.
2. To put in motion or action; to arouse; to excite. "I shall waken all this company."
Chaucer.
Lest fierce remembrance wake my sudden rage. Milton.
Even Richard's crusade woke little interest in his island realm. J. R. Green.
3. To bring to life again, as if from the sleep of death; to reanimate; to revive.
To second life Waked in the renovation of the just. Milton.
4. To watch, or sit up with, at night, as a dead body.
Wake <Xpage=1623>
Wake , n. 1. The act of waking, or being awaked; also, the state of being awake. [Obs. or Poetic]
Making such difference 'twixt wake and sleep. Shak.
Singing her flatteries to my morning wake . Dryden.
2. The state of forbearing sleep, especially for solemn or festive purposes; a vigil.
The warlike wakes continued all the night, And funeral games played at new returning light. Dryden.
The wood nymphs, decked with daises trim, Their merry wakes and pastimes keep. Milton.
3. Specifically: (a) (Ch. of Eng.) An annual parish festival formerly held in commemoration of the dedication of a church. Originally, prayers were said on the evening preceding, and hymns were sung during the night, in the church; subsequently, these vigils were discontinued, and the day itself, often with succeeding days, was occupied in rural pastimes and exercises, attended by eating and drinking, often to excess.
Great solemnities were made in all churches, and great fairs and wakes throughout all England. Ld. Berners.
And every village smokes at wakes with lusty cheer. Drayton.
(b) The sitting up of persons with a dead body, often attended with a degree of festivity, chiefly among the Irish. "Blithe as shepherd at a wake ."
Cowper.
Wake play , the ceremonies and pastimes connected with a wake. See Wake , n. , 3 (b) , above. [Obs.]
Chaucer.
Wakeful <Xpage=1623>
Wake"ful (?) , a. Not sleeping; indisposed to sleep; watchful; vigilant.
Dissembling sleep, but wakeful with the fright. Dryden.
-- Wake"ful*ly , adv. -- Wake"ful*ness , n.
Waken <Xpage=1623>
Wak"en (?) , v. i. [ imp. & p. pr. Wakened (?) ; p. pr. & vb. n. Wakening .] [OE. waknen , AS. w\'91cnan ; akin to Goth. ga waknan . See Wake , v. i. ] To wake; to cease to sleep; to be awakened.
Early, Turnus wakening with the light. Dryden.
Waken <Xpage=1623>
Wak"en , v. t. 1. To excite or rouse from sleep; to wake; to awake; to awaken. "Go, waken Eve."
Milton.
2. To excite; to rouse; to move to action; to awaken.
Then Homer's and Tyrt\'91us' martial muse Wakened the world. Roscommon.
Venus now wakes, and wakens love. Milton.
They introduce Their sacred song, and waken raptures high. Milton.
Wakener <Xpage=1623>
Wak"en*er (?) , n. One who wakens.
Wakening <Xpage=1623>
Wak"en*ing , n. 1. The act of one who wakens; esp., the act of ceasing to sleep; an awakening.
2. (Scots Law) The revival of an action.
Burrill.
They were too much ashamed to bring any wakening of the process against Janet. Sir W. Scott.
Waker <Xpage=1623>
Wak"er (?) , n. One who wakes.
Wake-robin <Xpage=1623>
Wake"-rob`in (?) , n. (Bot.) Any plant of the genus Arum , especially, in England, the cuckoopint ( Arum maculatum ).
&hand; In America the name is given to several species of Trillium, and sometimes to the Jack-in-the-pulpit.
Waketime <Xpage=1623>
Wake"time` (?) , n. Time during which one is awake. [R.]
Mrs. Browning.
Waking <Xpage=1623>
Wak"ing , n. 1. The act of waking, or the state or period of being awake.
2. A watch; a watching. [Obs.] "Bodily pain . . . standeth in prayer, in wakings , in fastings."
Chaucer.
In the fourth waking of the night. Wyclif (Matt. xiv. 25).
Walaway <Xpage=1623>
Wa"la*way (?) , interj. See Welaway . [Obs.]
Wald <Xpage=1623>
Wald (?) , n. [AS. weald . See Wold .] A forest; -- used as a termination of names. See Weald .
Waldenses <Xpage=1623>
Wal*den"ses (?; 277) , n. pl. [So called from Petrus Waldus , or Peter Waldo , a merchant of Lyons, who founded this sect about a . d . 1170.] (Eccl. Hist.) A sect of dissenters from the ecclesiastical system of the Roman Catholic Church, who in the 13th century were driven by persecution to the valleys of Piedmont, where the sect survives. They profess substantially Protestant principles.
Waldensian <Xpage=1623>
Wal*den"sian (?) , a. Of or pertaining to the Waldenses. -- n. One Holding the Waldensian doctrines.
Waldgrave <Xpage=1623>
Wald"grave (?) , n. [See Wald , and Margrave .] In the old German empire, the head forest keeper.
Waldheimia <Xpage=1623>
Wald*hei"mi*a (?) , n. [NL.] (Zo\'94l.) A genus of brachiopods of which many species are found in the fossil state. A few still exist in the deep sea.
Wale <Xpage=1623>
Wale (?) , n. [AS. walu a mark of stripes or blows, probably originally, a rod; akin to Icel. v\'94lr , Goth. walus a rod, staff. &root;146. Cf. Goal , Weal a wale.]
1. A streak or mark made on the skin by a rod or whip; a stripe; a wheal. See Wheal .
Holland.
2. A ridge or streak rising above the surface, as of cloth; hence, the texture of cloth.
Thou 'rt rougher far, And of a coarser wale , fuller of pride. Beau & Fl.
3. (Carp.) A timber bolted to a row of piles to secure them together and in position.
Knight.
4. (Naut.) (a) pl. Certain sets or strakes of the outside planking of a vessel; as, the main wales , or the strakes of planking under the port sills of the gun deck; channel wales , or those along the spar deck, etc. (b) A wale knot, or wall knot.
Wale knot . (Naut.) See Wall knot , under 1st Wall .
Wale <Xpage=1623>
Wale , v. t. 1. To mark with wales, or stripes.
2. To choose; to select; specifically (Mining) , to pick out the refuse of (coal) by hand, in order to clean it. [Prov. Eng. & Scot.]
Walhalla <Xpage=1623>
Wal*hal"la (?) , n. [Cf. G. walhalla , See Valhalla .] See Valhalla .
Waling <Xpage=1623>
Wal"ing (?) , n. (Naut.) Same as Wale , n. , 4.
Walk <Xpage=1623>
Walk (w&asdd;k) , v. i. [ imp. & p. p. Walked (?) ; p. pr. & vb. n. Walking .] [OE. walken , probably from AS. wealcan to roll, turn, revolve, akin to D. walken to felt hats, to work a hat, G. walken to full, OHG. walchan to beat, to full, Icel. v\'belka to roll, to stamp, Sw. valka to full, to roll, Dan. valke to full; cf. Skr. valg to spring; but cf. also AS. weallian to roam, ramble, G. wallen . &root;130.]
1. To move along on foot; to advance by steps; to go on at a moderate pace; specifically, of two-legged creatures, to proceed at a slower or faster rate, but without running, or lifting one foot entirely before the other touches the ground.
At the end of twelve months, he walked in the palace of the kingdom of Babylon. Dan. iv. 29.
When Peter was come down out of the ship, he walked on the water, to go to Jesus. Matt. xiv. 29.
&hand; In the walk of quadrupeds, there are always two, and for a brief space there are three, feet on the ground at once, but never four.
2. To move or go on the feet for exercise or amusement; to take one's exercise; to ramble.
3. To be stirring; to be abroad; to go restlessly about; -- said of things or persons expected to remain quiet, as a sleeping person, or the spirit of a dead person; to go about as a somnambulist or a specter.
I have heard, but not believed, the spirits of the dead May walk again. Shak.
When was it she last walked ? Shak.
4. To be in motion; to act; to move; to wag. [Obs.] "Her tongue did walk in foul reproach."
Spenser.
Do you think I'd walk in any plot? B. Jonson.
I heard a pen walking in the chimney behind the cloth. Latimer.
5. To behave; to pursue a course of life; to conduct one's self.
We walk perversely with God, and he will walk crookedly toward us. Jer. Taylor.
6. To move off; to depart. [Obs. or Colloq.]
He will make their cows and garrans to walk . Spenser.
To walk in, to go in; to enter, as into a house. -- To walk after the flesh (Script.) , to indulge sensual appetites, and to live in sin. Rom. viii. 1 . -- To walk after the Spirit (Script.) , to be guided by the counsels and influences of the Spirit, and by the word of God. Rom. viii. 1 . -- To walk by faith (Script.) , to live in the firm belief of the gospel and its promises, and to rely on Christ for salvation. 2 Cor. v. 7 . -- To walk in darkness (Script.) , to live in ignorance, error, and sin. 1 John i. 6 . -- To walk in the flesh (Script.) , to live this natural life, which is subject to infirmities and calamities. 2 Cor. x. 3 . -- To walk in the light (Script.) , to live in the practice of religion, and to enjoy its consolations. 1 John i. 7 . -- To walk over , in racing, to go over a course at a walk; -- said of a horse when there is no other entry; hence, colloquially, to gain an easy victory in any contest. <-- = to win in a walk. --> -- To walk through the fire (Script.) , to be exercised with severe afflictions. Isa. xliii. 2 . -- To walk with God (Script.) , to live in obedience to his commands, and have communion with him.
Walk <Xpage=1623>
Walk , v. t. 1. To pass through, over, or upon; to traverse; to perambulate; as, to walk the streets .
As we walk our earthly round. Keble.
2. To cause to walk; to lead, drive, or ride with a slow pace; as to walk one's horses. " I will rather trust . . . a thief to walk my ambling gelding."
Shak.
3. [AS. wealcan to roll. See Walk to move on foot.] To subject, as cloth or yarn, to the fulling process; to full. [Obs. or Scot.]
To walk the plank , to walk off the plank into the water and be drowned; -- an expression derived from the practice of pirates who extended a plank from the side of a ship, and compelled those whom they would drown to walk off into the water; figuratively, to vacate an office by compulsion.
Bartlett.
Walk <Xpage=1623>
Walk , n. 1. The act of walking, or moving on the feet with a slow pace; advance without running or leaping.