Ware vs Wait - What's the difference?
ware | wait |
(obsolete) The state of being aware; heed.
(uncountable, usually, in combination) Goods or a type of goods offered for sale or use.
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(in the plural) See wares .
(uncountable) Pottery or metal goods.
(countable, archaeology) A style or genre of artifact.
(Ireland) Crockery
(obsolete, or, dialectal) To beware of something.
(obsolete) wary; cautious
* Bible, 2 Tim. iv. 15
* Latimer
(obsolete, UK, dialect) seaweed
(nautical) To wear, or veer.
To delay movement or action until the arrival or occurrence of; to await. (Now generally superseded by "wait for".)
* Dryden
* 1992 , (Hilary Mantel), A Place of Greater Safety , Harper Perennial 2007, p. 30:
To delay movement or action until some event or time; to remain neglected or in readiness.
* (John Milton)
* (John Dryden)
*
, 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
* Rowe
(obsolete) To attend as a consequence; to follow upon; to accompany.
(obsolete) To defer or postpone (a meal).
A delay.
An ambush.
* Milton
(obsolete) One who watches; a watchman.
(in the plural, obsolete, UK) Hautboys, or oboes, played by town musicians.
(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)
* (rfdate)
As a verb ware
is .As an adjective wait is
far.As an adverb wait is
far.ware
English
Etymology 1
(etyl) .Usage notes
Replaced by intensified form aware.Derived terms
* bewareNoun
(-)- (Wyclif)
Etymology 2
(etyl) (m), from (etyl) .Noun
(en-noun)- damascene ware''', ''tole ' ware
Derived terms
* (Corded Ware culture) * -wareEtymology 3
From (etyl) warianVerb
(war)Adjective
(en adjective)- Of whom be thou ware also.
- He is ware enough; he is wily and circumspect for stirring up any sedition.
Derived terms
* waryEtymology 4
From (etyl) .Noun
Derived terms
* ware gooseEtymology 5
Verb
(war)wait
English
Alternative forms
* (l)Verb
(en verb)- Awed with these words, in camps they still abide, / And wait with longing looks their promised guide.
- The Court had assembled, to wait events, in the huge antechamber known as the Œil de Boeuf.
- They also serve who only stand and wait .
- Haste, my dear father; 'tis no time to wait .
- He chose a thousand horse, the flower of all / His warlike troops, to wait the funeral.
- Remorse and heaviness of heart shall wait thee, / And everlasting anguish be thy portion.
- to wait dinner
Usage notes
* In sense 1, this is a catenative verb that takes the to infinitive . SeeSynonyms
* (delay until event) hold one's breathDerived terms
* can't wait * wait staff * wait state * wait for * wait on * wait tables * waiter * waiting room * waitperson * waitress * waitronNoun
(en noun)- I had a very long wait at the airport security check.
- They laid in wait for the patrol.
- an enemy in wait
- (Halliwell)
- Hark! are the waits abroad?
- 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.