| waistcoat | A short, sleeveless coat or garment for men, worn under the coat, extending no lower than the hips, and covering the waist; a vest. A garment occasionally worn by women as a part of fashionable costume. The waistcoat was a part of female attire as well as male . . . It was only when the waistcoat was worn without a gown or upper dress that it was considered the mark of a mad or profligate woman. Synonym: See Vest. Source: Websters Dictionary (01 Mar 1998) |
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| waistcoateer | One wearing a waistcoat; especially, a woman wearing one uncovered, or thought fit for such a habit; hence, a loose woman; strumpet. "Do you think you are here, sir, Amongst your waistcoateers, your base wenches?" (Beau. & Fl) Source: Websters Dictionary (01 Mar 1998) |
| wait | 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. 3. To attend on; to accompany; especially, to attend with ceremony or respect. "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. 1. To watch; to observe; to take notice. ""But [unless] ye wait well and be privy, I wot right well, I am but dead," quoth she." (Chaucer) 2. To stay or rest in expectation; to stop or remain stationary till the arrival of some person or event; to rest in patience; to stay; not to depart. "All the days of my appointed time will I wait, till my change come." (Job xiv. 14) "They also serve who only stand and wait." (Milton) "Haste, my dear father; 't is no time to wait." (Dryden) To wait on or upon. 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." . "I must wait on myself, must I?" . To attend; to go to see; to visit on business or for ceremony. To follow, as a consequence; to await. "That ruin that waits on such a supine temper." . To look watchfully at; to follow with the eye; to watch. "It is a point of cunning to wait upon him with whom you speak with your eye." . To attend to; to perform. "Aaron and his sons . . . Shallwait on their priest's office." . <veterinary> To fly above its master, waiting till game is sprung; said of a hawk. Origin: OE. Waiten, OF. Waitier, gaitier, to watch, attend, F. Guetter to watch, to wait for, fr. OHG. Wahta a guard, watch, G. Wacht, from OHG. Wahhen to watch, be awake. 134. See Wake. Source: Websters Dictionary (01 Mar 1998) |
| waiter's cramp | An occupational dystonia characterised by spasm of the muscles of the back and dominant arm in persons who wait tables. (05 Mar 2000) |
| waiting | From Wait, In waiting, in attendance; as, lords in waiting. 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. Source: Websters Dictionary (01 Mar 1998) |
| waiting lists | Prospective patient listings for appointments. (12 Dec 1998) |
| waitress | A female waiter or attendant; a waiting maid or waiting woman. Source: Websters Dictionary (01 Mar 1998) |
| waive | 1. A waif; a castaway. 2. A woman put out of the protection of the law. See Waive, 3, and the Note. See: Waive. 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. To desert; to abandon. 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. Origin: 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 Alternative forms: wave. Source: Websters Dictionary (01 Mar 1998) |
| wake | 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) Origin: AS. Wacan, wacian; akin to OFries. Waka, OS. Wakn, D. Waken, G. Wachen, OHG. Wahhn, Icel. Vaka, Sw. Vaken, Dan. Vaage, Goth. Wakan, v. I, uswakjan, v. T, Skr. Vajay to rouse, to impel. Cf. Vigil, Wait, Watch. 1. The act of waking, or being awaked; also, the state of being awake. "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. <engineering> Specifically: 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) 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." Wake play, the ceremonies and pastimes connected with a wake. See Wake, 3, above. Source: Websters Dictionary (01 Mar 1998) |
| wake-robin | <botany> Any plant of the genus Arum, especially, in England, the cuckoopint (Arum maculatum). In America the name is given to several species of Trillium, and sometimes to the Jack-in-the-pulpit. Source: Websters Dictionary (01 Mar 1998) |
| wakefulness | A state in which the individual is fully aware of his environment. (12 Dec 1998) |
| Walcher | Gustav A., German obstetrician, 1856-1935. See: Walcher position. (05 Mar 2000) |
| Walcher position | An obsolete term for a supine position of the parturient woman with the lower extremities falling over the edge of the table. (05 Mar 2000) |
| waldenses | 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. Origin: So called from Petrus Waldus, or Peter Waldo, a merchant of Lyons, who founded this sect about a. D. 1170. Source: Websters Dictionary (01 Mar 1998) |
| Waldenstrom | Jan G., Swedish physician, *1906. See: Waldenstrom's macroglobulinaemia, Waldenstrom's purpura, Waldenstrom's syndrome, Waldenstrom's test. (05 Mar 2000) |