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Glite Dictionary
waiting line

waiting line

1 1.8
A line of people or cars waiting for their turn
  • noun
  • /ˈweɪtɪŋ laɪn/
translation icon : cola
  • The grocery store had a long waiting line at checkout on Saturday afternoon.
  • a long waiting line

Examples

  • Guess what, by then another 10 minutes had passed and more people had joined the waiting line.

    Blog text (22)

  • Long waiting lines for people trying to leave town.

    Fiction book (1998)

  • The waiting line for cabs stretched all the way toward the next terminal, so I went back inside to call my secretary, Joshua Stein.

    Fiction book (1990)

  • There were no waiting lines for the restrooms because both women's and men's facilities were open to all the men in attendance.

    Academic text (1997)

  • The oil price shock, together with an oil embargo organized by the Arab members of OPEC and regulation of petroleum prices within the U.S., caused gasoline supply shortages and waiting lines at gas pumps.

    Academic text (1990)

  • People patiently stood in the waiting line outside the theater for the opening night show.

  • During the festival, the waiting line for the popular ride stretched all the way to the entrance.

Synonyms

queue
vswaiting line
27 2.9

A line of people or vehicles waiting their turn

refers specifically to people or vehicles waiting rather than including things

Antonyms

to bypass
119 4.7

To avoid dealing with a problem by using a different method

Surface Forms

waiting line singular
waiting lines plural

Morphology

waiting + line

The meaning 'a line of people or vehicles waiting their turn' is directly and transparently derived from combining 'waiting' (the state of awaiting) with 'line' (a queue or formation). This simple compositional noun+noun pattern is cross-linguistically common and would be immediately clear to a B1 learner who knows both constituents.

Etymology

Waiting line comes from a simple picture of people standing in a long row while they wait. The word waiting shows they are not moving and line shows their order, so it means 'a line of people or vehicles waiting their turn'.