noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun

1. 1
   Any of certain plants with sharp hooked thorns found in southern and eastern Africa.; One of numerous acacias and mimosas and relatives.; Senegalia brevispica (wait-a-bit acacia) South-Africa
2. 2
   Certain thorny shrubs and trees of North America:; The common prickly ash (Zanthoxylum americanum).
3. 3
   Any of certain plants with sharp hooked thorns found in southern and eastern Africa.; One of numerous acacias and mimosas and relatives.; Biancaea decapetala (syn. Caesalpinia decapetala, Mauritius thorn, Mysore thorn) South-Africa
4. 4
   Certain thorny shrubs and trees of North America:; The greenbrier (Smilax spp., esp. Smilax rotundifolia).
5. 5
   Any of certain plants with sharp hooked thorns found in southern and eastern Africa.; Ziziphus mucronata (buffalo thorn, Cape thorn)

Show 5 more definitions

6. 6
   Certain thorny shrubs and trees of North America:; Any of various species of hawthorn (Crataegus crus-galli, etc.).
7. 7
   Any of certain plants with sharp hooked thorns found in southern and eastern Africa.; The grapple plant (Uncarina leptocarpa).
8. 8
   Certain thorny shrubs and trees of North America:; Mimosa aculeaticarpa (catclaw mimosa, wait-a-minute bush), of southwestern US and northern Mexico.
9. 9
   Any of certain plants with sharp hooked thorns found in southern and eastern Africa.; Asparagus spp. of South Africa (Asparagus capensis, Asparagus suaveolens, Asparagus burchellii, Asparagus mariae, Asparagus flavicaulis, Asparagus spinescens)
10. 10
    Certain thorny shrubs and trees of North America:; Senegalia greggii (catclaw acacia), of southwestern US and northern Mexico.

Synonyms

All synonyms

wait-a-minutewait-a-while

Etymology

Etymology 1

From Afrikaans wag-'n-bietjie.

Etymology 2

From the delay caused by the recurved thorns.

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.