Waiters upon Providence.

Those who cling to the prosperous, but fall away from decaying fortunes.

“The side of the Puritans was deserted at this period by a numerous class of … prudential persons, who never forsook them till they became unfortunate. These sagacious personages were called … waiters upon Providence and deemed it a high delinquency towards heaven to afford countenance to any cause longer than it was favoured by fortune.”—Sir W. Scott: Peveril of the Peak, chap. iv.

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Entry taken from Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, edited by the Rev. E. Cobham Brewer, LL.D. and revised in 1895.

Wade’s Boat
Wadham College (Oxford)
Wadman (Widow)
Wag Beards (To)
Wages
Wages of Sin (The)
Wagoner
Wahabites
Waifs and Strays
Waistcoat
Waiters upon Providence
Waits
Wake
“Waking a Witch.”
Walbrook Ward (London)
Walcheren Expedition
Waldemar’s Way
Waldenses
Waldo
Wales
Walk (in Hudibras)