Is this phrase correct?
"Smoke and mirrors keep us waiting ON a miracle"
("Let Me Love You" Justin Bieber)
looked up in the browser and found out that
to WAIT ON is to bring a meal for someone. And this meaning isn't suitable actually. I assume in this song "wait on" is used like "wait for a miracle" or "believe in a miracle". What can you tell me about it?
ADD: Guys, really thank you for your help. Yeah, i agree with SimonH that first of all i need to learn proper English, which i really want to do and try to do. As i understand, "WAIT ON" can exist like "WAIT FOR" but only with my english-spoken friends. And i'd better avoid using it at school, moreover while i'm sitting my exams. THANK YOU AGAIN ;)
Answer
Wait on is a colloquial variant of wait for ; it is not acceptable in formal discourse.
In my experience the two are practically equivalent, except that there may be some slight tendency to prefer on when the wait is caused by a delay.
ADDED:
Just to clarify: in Bieber's song wait on is a colloquial variant of wait for something or someone. There is also a formal use of wait on, now virtually obsolete except in historical contexts, meaning "attend, hold oneself in readiness to serve" a superior. This is (for instance) the sense you encounter when Samuel Pepys writes "Thence to White Hall, and we waited on the Duke", or in the title "Lady-in-Waiting"; and this sense is the source of the still-current use with servers in a restaurant.
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