wait in the wings

verb

To be about to become important or central.

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Meanings

verbwait in the wings (third-person singular simple present waits in the wings, present participle waiting in the wings, simple past and past participle waited in the wings)

present singular third person waits in the wings · participle present waiting in the wings · participle past waited in the wings · past waited in the wings

  1. idiomaticTo be about to become important or central.

    He's there in the dark, he's there in my heart / He waits in the wings, he's gotta play a part / Trouble is a friend, yeah, trouble is a friend of mine, oh oh!

    2009 September 1, Lenka, Tawgs Salter, “Trouble Is a Friend”, in Lenka, performed by Lenka
    1 more example

    Theire ^([sic]) is something obscene about a person spending $40 a seat to be told that redemtion ^([sic]) is a spaceship and that "god" is waiting in the wings to forgive the sins of the flesh.

    1984 February 4, Michael Bronski, “Cats: Straight and Boring”, in Gay Community News, volume 11, number 28, page 17

Origin

A reference to a performer in the wings of a theater, soon to go onstage, originally literally and now also often figuratively.

Full word history & related roots →
Cite this entry
APA

wait in the wings. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 5, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/wait%20in%20the%20wings

MLA

“wait in the wings.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/wait%20in%20the%20wings. Accessed November 5, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “wait in the wings,” accessed November 5, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/wait%20in%20the%20wings.

Source: wait in the wings on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.