Wait vs Last - What's the difference?

wait | last | Related terms |

Wait is a related term of last.

As an adjective wait

is far.

As an adverb wait

is far.

As a verb last is

wait

English

Alternative forms

* (l)

Verb

(en verb)

To delay movement or action until the arrival or occurrence of; to await. (Now generally superseded by "wait for".)

* Dryden

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

* 1992 , (Hilary Mantel), A Place of Greater Safety , Harper Perennial 2007, p. 30:

The Court had assembled, to wait events, in the huge antechamber known as the Œil de Boeuf.

To delay movement or action until some event or time; to remain neglected or in readiness.

* (John Milton)

They also serve who only stand and wait .

* (John Dryden)

Haste, my dear father; 'tis no time to wait .

, title=(The Celebrity), chapter=4 , passage=No matter how early I came down, I would find him on the veranda, smoking cigarettes, or otherwise his man would be there with a message to say that his master would shortly join me if I would kindly wait .}}

(US) To wait tables; to serve customers in a restaurant or other eating establishment.

(obsolete) To attend on; to accompany; especially, to attend with ceremony or respect.

* Dryden

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

* Rowe

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

(obsolete) To attend as a consequence; to follow upon; to accompany.

(obsolete) To defer or postpone (a meal).

to wait dinner

Usage notes

* In sense 1, this is a catenative verb that takes the to infinitive . See

Synonyms

* (delay until event) hold one's breath

Derived terms

* can't wait * wait staff * wait state * wait for * wait on * wait tables * waiter * waiting room * waitperson * waitress * waitron

Noun

(en noun)

A delay.

I had a very long wait at the airport security check.

An ambush.

They laid in wait for the patrol.

* Milton

an enemy in wait

(obsolete) One who watches; a watchman.

(in the plural, obsolete, UK) Hautboys, or oboes, played by town musicians.

(Halliwell)

(in the plural, archaic, UK) Musicians who sing or play at night or in the early morning, especially at Christmas time; serenaders; musical watchmen. [formerly waites, wayghtes.]

* (rfdate)

Hark! are the waits abroad?

* (rfdate)

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.

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* English control verbs English intransitive verbs 1000 English basic words ----

last

English

Etymology 1

From (etyl) (m), (m), syncopated variant of (m), from (etyl) latost, (m), , whence English (l).

Adjective

(-)

Final, ultimate, coming after all others of its kind.

* , chapter=5

, title= The Mirror and the Lamp , passage=Then everybody once more knelt, and soon the blessing was pronounced. The choir and the clergy trooped out slowly, […], down the nave to the western door. […] At a seemingly immense distance the surpliced group stopped to say the last prayer.}}

Most recent, latest, last so far.

* {{quote-magazine, title=No hiding place

, date=2013-05-25, volume=407, issue=8837, page=74, magazine=(The Economist) citation , passage=In America alone, people spent $170 billion on “direct marketing”—junk mail of both the physical and electronic varieties—last year.}}

Farthest of all from a given quality, character, or condition; most unlikely, or least preferable.

He is the last person to be accused of theft.

Being the only one remaining of its class.

Supreme; highest in degree; utmost.

* R. Hall

Contending for principles of the last importance.

Lowest in rank or degree.

the last prize

(Alexander Pope)

Synonyms

* (final) at the end, caboose, final, tail end, terminal, ultimate * (most recent) latest, most recent

Derived terms

* last word * nice guys finish last

Determiner

(en determiner)

The (one) immediately before the present.

Last night the moon was full.

We went there last year.

Last Tuesday was Hallowe'en.

Last time we talked about this was in January.

(of a, day of the week) Closest to seven days (one week) ago.

It's Wednesday, and the party was last Tuesday; that is, not yesterday, but eight days ago.

Usage notes

* (both senses) This cannot be used in past or future tense to refer to a time immediately before the subject matter. For example, one does not say or the like.

Adverb

(-)

Most recently.

When we last met, he was based in Toronto.

* Shakespeare

How long is't now since last yourself and I / Were in a mask?

(sequence) after everything else; finally

I'll go last .

last but not least

* Dryden

Pleased with his idol, he commends, admires, / Adores; and, last , the thing adored desires.

Synonyms

* finally * lastly

Etymology 2

From (etyl) (m), from (etyl) .

Verb

(en verb)

To perform, carry out.

(label) To endure, continue over time.

*:Thus the red damask curtains which now shut out the fog-laden, drizzling atmosphere of the Marylebone Road, had cost a mere song, and yet they might have been warranted to last another thirty years. A great bargain also had been the excellent Axminster carpet which covered the floor;.

(label) To hold out, continue undefeated or entire.

Synonyms

* continue * endure * survive

Antonyms

* disintegrate * dissipate * fall apart * wear out

Etymology 3

(etyl) .

Noun

(wikipedia last) (en noun)

a tool for shaping or preserving the shape of shoes

* 2006, Newman, Cathy, Every Shoe Tells a Story , National Geographic (September, 2006), 83,

How is an in-your-face black leather thigh-high lace-up boot with a four-inch spike heel like a man's black calf lace-up oxford? They are both made on a last , the wood or plastic foot-shaped form that leather is stretched over and shaped to make a shoe.

Derived terms

Verb

(en verb)

To shape with a last; to fasten or fit to a last; to place smoothly on a last.

to last a boot

Etymology 4

From (etyl) last, from (etyl) , (etyl) last, (etyl) Last, (etyl) last, (etyl) lest.

Noun

(en noun)

(obsolete) A burden; load; a cargo; freight.

(obsolete) A measure of weight or quantity, varying in designation depending on the goods concerned.

* 1624 , John Smith, Generall Historie , in Kupperman 1988, p. 114:

Now we so quietly followed our businesse, that in three moneths wee made three or foure Last of Tarre, Pitch, and Sope ashes [...].

* 1866 , James Edwin Thorold Rogers, A History of Agriculture and Prices in England , Volume 1, page 169,

The last of wool is twelve sacks.

(obsolete) An old English (and Dutch) measure of the carrying capacity of a ship, equal to two tons.

* 1942 (1601) , T D Mutch, The First Discovery of Australia , page 14,

The tonnage of the of Harmensz's fleet is given as 25 and 30 lasten .

A load of some commodity with reference to its weight and commercial value.

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* * * 200 English basic words English sequence adverbs 1000 English basic words ----