-in-waiting

English

Suffix

-in-waiting

1. Depending on the expected arrival of a result, confirmation, etc.
   • 1999, David Foster Wallace, “Suicide as a Sort of Present”, in Brief Interviews with Hideous Men, Little, Brown and Company:

     Throughout her adolescence, authorities... commented that the young mother-in-waiting 'seem[ed] to have very, very high expectations of [her]self,' and... there was no failing to discern in them that slight unmistakable note of approval... and at any rate the future mother felt (for the moment) approved.

2. About to happen; bound to happen.

   Choosing such an unqualified person to operate the machine is an accident-in-waiting.

3. Attendant to a royal figure.

Derived terms

• baroness-in-waiting
• groom-in-waiting
• lady-in-waiting
• maid-in-waiting
• lord-in-waiting

See also

• accident waiting to happen
• wait in the wings

Further reading

• “-in-waiting”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.
• “in waiting”, in Dictionary.com Unabridged, Dictionary.com, LLC, 1995–present.
• “in waiting”, in Collins English Dictionary.