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Waiting vs Wailing - What's the difference?

waiting | wailing |

As verbs the difference between waiting and wailing

is that waiting is while wailing is .

As nouns the difference between waiting and wailing

is that waiting is (obsolete) watching while wailing is a loud drawn out scream and howl.

waiting

English

(wikipedia waiting)

Verb

(head)
  • * 1874 , (John Fiske), Outlines of Cosmic Philosophy , I. 122.
    • In all ages, men have fought over words, without waiting to know what the words really signified.
  • *, chapter=19
    • , title= The Mirror and the Lamp , passage=At the far end of the houses the head gardener stood waiting for his mistress, and he gave her strips of bass to tie up her nosegay. This she did slowly and laboriously, with knuckly old fingers that shook.}}

    Derived terms

    * waiting game * waiting room

    Noun

  • (obsolete) Watching.
  • The act of staying or remaining in expectation.
  • * 1876 , , The New Day, A Poem in Songs and Sonnets
    • There was an awful waiting in the earth, / As if a mystery greatened to its birth.
  • Attendance, service.
  • *
    • Green glasses for hock, and excellent waiting at table.

    Derived terms

    * in waiting

    References

    *

    Statistics

    *

    wailing

    English

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • A loud drawn out scream and howl.
  • *1898 , , (Moonfleet) Chapter 5:
  • *:'For as soon as I heard Tewkesbury tell of screams and wailings in the air, and no one to be seen,' said Elzevir, 'I guessed that some poor soul had got shut in the vault, and was there crying for his life.

    • Verb

    (head)
    • Craig ran off wailing because his friend pulled a prank on him.