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Attention vs Wait - What's the difference?

attention | wait |

As a noun attention

is (label) mental focus.

As an interjection attention

is .

As an adjective wait is

far.

As an adverb wait is

far.

attention

Noun

(en-noun)
  • (label) Mental focus.
  • *
  • , title=(The Celebrity), chapter=1 , passage=In the old days, to my commonplace and unobserving mind, he gave no evidences of genius whatsoever. He never read me any of his manuscripts, […], and therefore my lack of detection of his promise may in some degree be pardoned. But he had then none of the oddities and mannerisms which I hold to be inseparable from genius, and which struck my attention in after days when I came in contact with the Celebrity.}}
  • * , chapter=3
  • , title= The Mirror and the Lamp , passage=One saint's day in mid-term a certain newly appointed suffragan-bishop came to the school chapel, and there preached on “The Inner Life.”  He at once secured attention by his informal method, and when presently the coughing of Jarvis […] interrupted the sermon, he altogether captivated his audience with a remark about cough lozenges being cheap and easily procurable.}}
  • * {{quote-magazine, date=2012-03, author=William E. Carter, Merri Sue Carter, volume=100, issue=2, page=87, magazine=(American Scientist)
  • , title= The British Longitude Act Reconsidered , passage=But was it responsible governance to pass the Longitude Act without other efforts to protect British seamen? Or might it have been subterfuge—a disingenuous attempt to shift attention away from the realities of their life at sea.}}
  • (label) An action or remark expressing concern for or interest in someone or something, especially romantic interest.
  • * 1818 , (Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley), (Frankenstein); or, the Modern Prometheus , ch. 3,
  • She attended her sickbed; her watchful attentions triumphed over the malignity of the distemper.
  • * 1910 , (Stephen Leacock), " ,
  • For some time past I have been the recipient of very marked attentions from a young lady.
  • A state of alertness in the standing position.
  • Derived terms

    () * at attention * attention deficit disorder * attention-grabbing * attention line * attention span * attention whore * attentional * centre of attention/center of attention * draw attention * flow of attention * pay attention * stand to attention

    Interjection

    (en interjection)
  • .
  • Statistics

    *

    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.

    Statistics

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