Do you say"Standing on line" or "Standing in line"?

[candy]

Also do you say "Waiting for you" on "Waiting on you"?

We here in Mass use the first of each example----Is it a regional thing or a generational thing?

[DebJ]

1. waiting for you and waiting on you have two different meanings

If I am waiting FOR someone, we might for example be going out somewhere together.
If I am waiting on someone, it is probably my new husband, whom I wait on hand and foot all the time because I like too

[flowomo]

2. I'm from Massachusetts... and we never said "standing on line..."

maybe just an Everett thing. That's a total Britishism, tho

[htuttle]

3. In Wisconsin, we say 'standing in line'

as in 'in a line', eg. 'part of a line'.

'Waiting FOR you' is waiting for another person to arrive or accomplish something.

'Waiting ON you' happens in a restaurant.

[candy]

5. I know what waiting on,as in a waiter, means---

But I've heard it several times on TV dramas as "I've been standing here waiting on you for a long time".

Weird.

[htuttle]

10. I have heard that from time to time

Sometimes collectively, like 'We've been waiting on you!'.

I think it might be from Ohio or Southern IL area. However, that might just be because, as a Wisconsinite, I think people in Ohio talk funny.

:evilgrin: ps. what's up with saying 'wash' as 'warsh'?

[liontamer]

19. i think waiting on someone in that sense may be a southern thing

or maybe it's a small town thing, but i've definately heard it

[Misunderestimator]

4. Standing in and waiting for...

I never got the others in the context you mean. Especially "waiting on" which would mean that you are serving them.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

6. "Waiting on line" is a Northeastern regionalism

:-)

Most of the rest of the country says "waiting in line."

[candy]

8. I live in the Northeast and have never heard it,except on TV----

or in the movies.

[Misunderestimator]

15. I lived in the Northeast for 20 years, and heard it all the time...

was really weird for me, having never heard that before.

[tridim]

7. The only place I've ever heard "Waiting on line" is NYC

It's just one of those NY things, like Kalkarash and Crab Juice.

[miss_kitty]

9. I say both as regards on or in line

the waiting thing though-it does have two different meanings.

'In line' is a west coast thing, I think. I never heard 'on line' till I was corrupted by New Yorkers :)

[yvr girl]

11. Canadian curve

We stand in line-ups. We also get in line-ups. It's a Canuck thing. I've heard the Waiting on you in your context, but only on TV. I wait for people. (Confession time, more likely that people are waiting for me.)

We also say that someone is in grade one, not in first grade. No one says it's a quarter of five. Here, it is either quarter to or quarter past an hour.

[donheld]

12. How about getting in the queue?

or queueing up?:bounce:

[yvr girl]

13. Only in England n/t

[MaineDem]

14. I've lived in Maine or MA my whole life (so far) and I've never heard...

Anyone waiting "on line". It's a NY thing, I always thought.

It's always been "in line" any place I've ever lived.

"Waiting on you" is what the waitstaff in a restaurant does. :D

[starroute]

16. I say both "on line" and "in line"

When you add yourself to the end of an existing queue, you're getting on line.

But when a bunch of schoolkids is asked to line up -- by name or size or whatever -- they're getting in line, because they're forming a line when there was none before.

I've never been sure whether anyone else uses them that way or whether it's just me trying to find some logical difference between them.


Another dialect question: Does anyone here recognize the term "sliding pond"?

[Pithlet]

17. The only time I've ever used

or heard waiting on you is when one group is talking to an individual. "We're just waiting on you". And, I've never heard "waiting on line". This is the first I've ever heard it.

[arwalden]

18. I Stand On Line At The Bank... My Car Gets In Line At Jiffy Lube