Waits

Waits is a term with several related meanings in English. In its general sense, to wait is to stay in place or to delay action in anticipation of something. As a noun, a wait denotes the period of such inactivity or the act of waiting itself. The plural waits can refer to multiple such periods or to groups or individuals named Waits.

In daily life, people wait for appointments, transit, or results. In organizations, waiting times affect customer satisfaction and throughput, and are analyzed using queuing theory. A waiting time is the duration a customer or job spends in a queue before service. In simple models, the average waiting time depends on arrival rate, service rate, and queue discipline.

In operations research, Little's law relates average numbers in the system to arrival rate and average time in the system: L = λW. Other metrics include Wq (average waiting time in the queue) and ρ (system utilization). These tools help assess performance and guide process improvements.

Historically, Waits were public musicians in medieval and early modern England, hired by towns to entertain residents and sometimes to serve as watchmen. Known as the Waits, they performed at civic events and Christmas, using wind instruments such as shawms and sackbuts, and are considered early contributors to street music and caroling traditions.

In modern culture, Tom Waits, an American singer-songwriter and actor, is the most widely known bearer of the surname Waits, celebrated for his gravelly voice and eclectic repertoire.