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Language Foundation

waiting on

In work, waiting on something or someone means that you cannot continue because the work depends on that person, task, decision, or piece of information and it is not yet ready, completed, or available.

In plain English

The key idea is dependence: another person, task, decision, or needed information has to be in place before the work can move forward. Until that input is ready, finished, or available, progress stops.

In context

Here, it reports that progress is blocked because some needed input from outside the current work is still not ready, completed, or available.

Situation
Collaborating remotely through projects, tasks, meetings, handoffs, and approvals
What it communicates
reports an external input holding up progress

Meaning limits

By itself, the term does not say why the dependency is delayed or when it will be resolved.

Examples

“We're waiting on the first coat to dry, so we can't paint the doors yet.”

Core meaning

“The report is still waiting on final numbers.”

In context

  • depend on Broader Term

    If work is waiting on something, it depends on that thing; the broader term does not itself imply that progress has stopped.

  • serve or attend to someone Alternate Sense

    This is a different sense of the same form and is not about a work dependency that is delaying progress.