Collins COBUILD Advanced Learner's English Dictionary - wait around

If you wait around or wait about, you stay in the same place, usually doing very little, because you cannot act before something happens or before someone arrives. (in BRIT, also use wait about) The attacker may have been waiting around for an opportunity to strike... I waited around to speak to the doctor. ...the ghastly tedium of waiting about at the airport. PHRASAL VERB: V P for n, V P to-inf, V P