waitern.

1382 Bible (Wycliffite, E.V.) 2 Sam. xiii. 34 And the child weyter [L. puer speculator] heuede vp his eyen and bihelde.

c1420 Wyclif Bible, Pref. Epist. St. Jerome 70 Sophonyas the wayter [L. speculator] and the knower of the priuetees of the Lord, herith a cry.

1549 M. Coverdale et al. tr. Erasmus Paraphr. Newe Test. II. 1 John i. f. xli^v Euen the thing which we y^t were continual waitours heard with our eares, saw with our eies.

1554 Aberdeen Reg. (1844) I. 281 That the saidis baillies suld..apprehend the said John Chalmer, and put him in custodie..with vyttaris and vaychearis to awyt and keip him fra doing of skayth.

1672 G. Swinnock Life T. Wilson 21 Accordingly, he thus clad came forth, not knowing but that the Waiter was still at the door.

1687 A. Lovell tr. J. de Thévenot Trav. into Levant i. 285 The Health~boat came, and put Waiters on board of us, to keep the People of the Town from mingling with us.

1664 T. Killigrew Parsons Wedding iii. v in Comedies & Trag. 120 Drawer... The sum is six pounds, and be pleased to remember the Waiters.

1712 R. Steele Spectator No. 508. ⁋3 We change our Taverns according as he suspects any Treasonable Practices in the settling the Bill by the Master, or sees any bold Rebellion in point of Attendance by the Waiters.

1779 Mirror No. 26 But there is another set of persons still more exposed to be treated roughly than even domestic servants, and these are, the waiters at inns and taverns.

1818 W. Hazlitt Knowl. Char. in Table-talk (1822) II. 351 After a familiar conversation with a waiter at a tavern.

1837 C. Dickens Pickwick Papers xxxiv. 376 The White Hart hotel..where the waiters, from their costume, might be mistaken for Westminster boys.

1874 J. Ruskin Fors Clavigera IV. xlviii. 271 Presently afterwards, an evidently German-importation of waiter brings me up my breakfast.

1887 Financial Critic 19 Mar. The head Stock Exchange waiter strikes three strokes with a mallet on the side of a rostrum in the Stock Exchange before making formal declaration of default of a member. Thus, to be ‘hammered’, is to be pronounced a defaulter.

1904 C. Duguid Stock Exchange ii. 12 We have also noticed the Waiters' Stands, about twenty in number, placed in various parts of the House, pulpit-like..so that the important announcements which emanate from these stands may be well heard in the House.

1934 F. E. Armstrong Bk. Stock Exchange xvii. 356 It is known that dealers used to foregather in the coffee houses of Change Alley, Cornhill... Here, probably, it was that ‘waiters’, plying their trade, and seeking out from the interior fastnesses of these refreshment rooms some particular Stock-jobber wanted by his client, gave the name to the uniformed ‘waiter’ who calls the Members within the walls of the present Stock Exchange.

1962 A. Sampson Anat. Brit. xxiii. 380 Merchant bankers work in a formal atmosphere... Mahogany, black-coated waiters and grandfather clocks set the tone of privacy.

1962 A. Sampson Anat. Brit. xxv. 400 The Room [at Lloyd's]... When a broker is wanted, one of the ‘waiters’ (who stand round the room in scarlet uniform) writes his name on a special instrument.

1976 Times 22 Apr. (Baltic Exchange Suppl.) p. i/9 As in other City institutions, attendants wear livery and are called waiters.

1833 J. C. Loudon Encycl. Cottage Archit. §1474 In lofty Inns, we have often thought that it might be desirable to have an ascending and descending platform, on the principle of the ascending and descending cupboards or waiters.

1861 Our Eng. Home 184 Loriot invented, for the salons of Choisy, tables called waiters, which, on touching a spring, sank through the floor, to reappear laden for a repast.

1738 Will of Frances, Lady Colepeper (P.R.O.: PROB. 11/708) f. 323 I give unto my said niece..my dumb waiter and the rest of my waiters.

1778 F. Burney Evelina III. xvi. 178 Just then, a servant brought Lady Louisa a note, upon a waiter.

1802 M. M. Sherwood Susan Gray 90 She placed a waiter in my hand, and ordered me to carry the tea to the Captain.

1839 C. Dickens Nicholas Nickleby xvii. 154 A heterogeneous litter of pastry-cook's trays, lamps, waiters full of glasses, and piles of rout seats.

1886 G. Allen For Maimie's Sake xxxviii Hetty took the..missive..from the old massive silver waiter.

1779 Ingenhousz Electr. in Philos. Trans. (Royal Soc.) 69 662 I began first by making use of one of those glass stands, which they call a waiter, and which has a glass support fixed at right angles to its center.

1906 A. C. White Tours de Force p. xxxii If a problem has no threat, it is called a ‘waiter’, and all the different continuations are variations.

1935 Encycl. Sports, Games & Pastimes 150/1 There is no simple waiting move for white. The key is, indeed, a ‘waiter’, but four of the resulting mates are different from those in the set position.

1963 M. Lipton et al. Chess Probl. iv. 72 White can neither retain all the set mates as in a Waiter, nor change some of them while still maintaining zugzwang as in a mutate.