-in-waiting

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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 to have very, very high expectations of 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.

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Further reading