AWAIT

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does await mean? 

• AWAIT (verb)
  The verb AWAIT has 1 sense:

1. look forward to the probable occurrence of

  Familiarity information: AWAIT used as a verb is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• AWAIT (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they await    ... he / she / it awaits   
Past simple: awaited   
Past participle: awaited   
-ing form: awaiting   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Look forward to the probable occurrence of

Classified under:

Verbs of thinking, judging, analyzing, doubting

Synonyms:

await; expect; look; wait

Context example:

he is waiting to be drafted

Verb group:

anticipate; expect (regard something as probable or likely)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "await"):

expect (look forward to the birth of a child)

look forward (expect or hope for)

look to (turn one's interests or expectations towards)

hang on; hold on; hold the line (hold the phone line open)

anticipate; look for; look to (be excited or anxious about)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Somebody ----s somebody
Somebody ----s VERB-ing

 Context examples 

But little had she dared to hope that so much love and eloquence awaited her there.

(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)

It was addressed to him, and ran thus: Please await me. Terrible misfortune. Right wing three-quarter missing, indispensable to-morrow. OVERTON.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

The Colonel and the Inspector were awaiting us in the parlour.

(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Well, thus equipped, we all set out—even the fellow with the broken head, who should certainly have kept in shadow—and straggled, one after another, to the beach, where the two gigs awaited us.

(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

She had engaged a sitting-room, and our lunch awaited us upon the table.

(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

The butler was awaiting my arrival; he had received by the same post as mine a registered letter of instruction, and had sent at once for a locksmith and a carpenter.

(The Strange Case Of Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

With you at the end awaiting me, I have never shirked.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

While the content of the atmospheres is unknown and will have to await further observations, the low concentration of hydrogen and helium has scientists excited about the implications.

(Hubble Telescope Makes First Atmospheric Study of Earth-Sized Exoplanets, NASA)

Their findings could be a step to extending storage of human donor tissues awaiting transplantation and protecting traumatic brain injury patients who undergo induced hypothermia.

(Researchers develop “hibernation in a dish” to study how animals adapt to the cold, National Institutes of Health)

Time during which some action is awaited; inactivity resulting in something being put off until a later time; the state of being slower or later.

(Delay, NCI Thesaurus)