What's the difference between waft and wait?

Waft


Definition:

  • (v. t.) To give notice to by waving something; to wave the hand to; to beckon.
  • (v. t.) To cause to move or go in a wavy manner, or by the impulse of waves, as of water or air; to bear along on a buoyant medium; as, a balloon was wafted over the channel.
  • (v. t.) To cause to float; to keep from sinking; to buoy.
  • (v. i.) To be moved, or to pass, on a buoyant medium; to float.
  • (n.) A wave or current of wind.
  • (n.) A signal made by waving something, as a flag, in the air.
  • (n.) An unpleasant flavor.
  • (n.) A knot, or stop, in the middle of a flag.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) Shorten presented to the world as a wafting, benign cloud.
  • (2) Great for families, but not those families offended by whiffs of a special herb wafting across the lawn.
  • (3) I savour the smell of the food stalls as I ride down Whitecross Street market at about 11am, inhaling successive wafts of roasting steak, baking flatbreads, frying onions, toasting cumin seeds, sizzling bacon, curries and chillies and pickles and melting cheese.
  • (4) Fat sizzles, flour sifts, and delicious smells waft around.
  • (5) At least 900 airplane flights into and out of Bali and other regional airports were cancelled due to concerns about the ash clouds, which wafted as high as six kilometres (20,000ft) into the air.
  • (6) Oscar can just about be given the benefit of the doubt after an optimistic fall in front of Bellerín but Cesc Fàbregas deserved all the condemnation that came his way when he wafted his leg in the direction of Santi Cazorla, then plopped to the ground in the vain hope that the referee, Michael Oliver, might be conned.
  • (7) Danny Welbeck wafted his attempt over the crossbar.
  • (8) The smell of fried food wafts from the door of the Docks Cafe, which sits in the shadow of Tata Steel’s sprawling Port Talbot steelworks.
  • (9) Two of them, Shane Long and James Ward-Prowse, undid the home defence in the 83rd minute, only for Ward-Prowse to waft a shot over from 14 yards.
  • (10) Yet his scatter-gun intelligence had been obvious during a long conversation in which he had wafted through subjects as diverse as depression and discipline, addiction and hope, religion and money – and his complicated feelings towards Haye.
  • (11) Valencia snatched at his shot and wafted it over the crossbar without really looking up to weigh his options.
  • (12) 8.52pm GMT Neil Lennon lays down the law Neil Lennon (@OfficialNeil) Contrary to reports there have been no fresh bids for Gary and even if there are they will be rejected..he is NOT for sale January 31, 2013 8.48pm GMT Denials are now wafting out of Upton Park about the reported bid for Diamé.
  • (13) He tossed Shakespeare into a modern-day, thinly veiled Miami in the electrifying Romeo + Juliet and sent Nicole Kidman wafting, purring and simpering through bohemian Paris in Moulin Rouge!
  • (14) The air extraction system designed to suck out the humid breath, sweat, skin flakes, hair, dust and pollution wafting up towards the frescoes was almost 20 years old and urgently needed replacing, he said.
  • (15) And then smile calmly at her back as she switches on the kettle and enjoy the gentle sensation of a breeze wafting through your plush and generous under-arm hair.
  • (16) Within minutes, the bitter scent of tear-gas had wafted into the hospital grounds, sparking panic that the riot police were coming for them there as well.
  • (17) But Ameobi wafts a weak header into Hart's arms, a poor effort from a decent position.
  • (18) carbon dioxide emissions, it has never systematically measured its fugitive methane leaks, which waft from every stage of the gas extraction, processing, and distribution process – from the well casings and the condenser valves to the cracked pipelines under Harlem neighbourhoods.
  • (19) In Amsterdam, long famous for its coffee shops, identifiable by pictures of marijuana outside and fumes wafting through the door, international experts gathering to discuss cannabis regulation said the international conventions, once so heavily policed by the US, would now be increasingly flouted.
  • (20) They have the same faces and a lot of moleskin fur – not exactly first class, in other words, but still chic – with arrogant legs and a great waft of perfume about them.” Keun was too much for the Nazis; she fled to Ostend where she took Joseph Roth for her lover.

Wait


Definition:

  • (v. i.) To watch; to observe; to take notice.
  • (v. i.) 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.
  • (v. t.) To stay for; to rest or remain stationary in expectation of; to await; as, to wait orders.
  • (v. t.) To attend as a consequence; to follow upon; to accompany; to await.
  • (v. t.) To attend on; to accompany; especially, to attend with ceremony or respect.
  • (v. t.) To cause to wait; to defer; to postpone; -- said of a meal; as, to wait dinner.
  • (v. i.) The act of waiting; a delay; a halt.
  • (v. i.) Ambush.
  • (v. i.) One who watches; a watchman.
  • (v. i.) Hautboys, or oboes, played by town musicians; not used in the singular.
  • (v. i.) Musicians who sing or play at night or in the early morning, especially at Christmas time; serenaders; musical watchmen.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) I can't wait to see what Christie and her patriarchy-smashing pals do next.
  • (2) Mike Ashley told Lee Charnley that maybe he could talk with me last week but I said: ‘Listen, we cannot say too much so I think it’s better if we wait.’ The message Mike Ashley is sending is quite positive, but it was better to talk after we play Tottenham.” Benítez will ask Ashley for written assurances over his transfer budget, control of transfers and other spheres of club autonomy, but can also reassure the owner that the prospect of managing in the second tier holds few fears for him.
  • (3) I said: ‘Apologies for doing this publicly, but I did try to get a meeting with you, and I couldn’t even get a reply.’ And then I had a massive go at him – about everything really, from poverty to uni fees to NHS waiting times.” She giggles again.
  • (4) It is possible that the high level of radiolabeled phospholipid found in the plasma membrane arose via the de novo pathway following the cleavage of an acyl group as we have found cytidine diphosphocholine phosphotransferase in the plasma membrane fraction (Wang, P., DeChatelet, L.R., and Waite, M. (1977) Biochim.
  • (5) Meanwhile Ed Miliband, the Labour leader, waiting anxiously for news of the scale of the Labour advance in his first nationwide electoral test, will urge the electorate not to be duped by the promise of a coalition mark 2, predicting sham concessions by the Conservatives .
  • (6) There are currently more than 380,000 households on local authority waiting lists in the capital – and the number is growing every day.
  • (7) If we’re waiting around for the Democratic version to sail through here, or the Republican version to sail through here, all those victims who are waiting for us to do something will wait for days, months, years, forever and we won’t get anything done.” Senator Bill Nelson, whose home state of Florida is still reeling from the Orlando shooting, said he felt morally obligated to return to his constituents with results.
  • (8) Terry Waite Chair, Benedict Birnberg Deputy chair, Antonio Ferrara CEO The Prisons Video Trust • If I want to build a bridge, I call in a firm of civil engineers who specialise in bridge-building.
  • (9) As a member of the state Assembly, Walker voted for a bill known as the Woman’s Right to Know Act, which required physicians to provide women with full information prior to an abortion and established a 24-hour waiting period in the hope that some women might change their mind about undergoing the procedure.
  • (10) Strict precautions are necessary to prevent the catastrophic events resulting from inadvertent gentamicin injection; such precautions should include precise labeling of all injectable solutions on the surgical field, waiting to draw up injectable antibiotics until the time they are needed, and drawing up injectable antibiotics under direct physician observation.
  • (11) If there’s a fire in the house, you don’t sit there saying we’re going to wait until the fire commissioner comes,” she said.
  • (12) Joe Gregory, parked outside the arena while waiting to pick up his girlfriend and her sister from the concert, captured its impact on his car’s dashcam.
  • (13) According to Nigerian government figures, there were more than 7,000 spills between 1970 and 2000, and there are 2,000 official major spillage sites, many going back decades, with thousands of smaller spills still waiting to be cleared up.
  • (14) At posttreatment, subjects in both active treatments reported significant improvement on self-report and interview measures of depression while subjects in the waiting list condition reported minimal change.
  • (15) Shenhua Watermark Coal, a subsidiary of the Chinese state-owned Shenhua Group, is waiting for final approval from Hunt for a $1.2bn open-cut coalmine on the edge of the plains, a little more than three kilometres from Hamparsum’s property.
  • (16) Separate calculation of changes in prolactin after the course of medical treatment, pregnancies or 'just waiting' periods showed mean PRL concentrations to be significantly lower only for 'functional' patients after pregnancy.
  • (17) It's also worth noting that if the Help to Buy scheme really does inflate house prices, by waiting five years before you buy you run the risk of not actually being able to save enough for a 10% deposit, because you'll need a bigger amount than you now need.
  • (18) Would I be stupid not to wait another six months or so, to get a 90% mortgage given the cons of Help to Buy?
  • (19) A group placed on a waiting list for 3 weeks was used as a control group.
  • (20) "I don't think that people are waiting for the wrong solution."

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