WordNet
Wikipedia
In criminal law, lying in wait refers to the act of hiding and waiting for an individual with the intent to kill that person or inflict serious bodily harm to that person. Because lying in wait involves premeditation, some jurisdictions have established that lying in wait is considered an aggravating circumstance that allows for the imposition of harsher criminal penalties. Scholars have traced the origins of this doctrine as far back as 1389, when the English Parliament passed a law that denied the right of pardon to individuals who killed while lying in wait. In 1794, Pennsylvania passed a law that defined first degree murder as "[a]ll murder which shall be perpetrated ... by lying in wait". Many states modeled their penal codes after the Pennsylvania law, but by the beginning of the twenty first century, only four states identified "lying in wait" as a "death qualifying act".
Usage examples of "lying in wait".
To backtrack: This wasn't a thing that our hero did lightly, Nor fearing death: he'd died twice before These past two centuries, and found it just slightly Boring, lying in wait for his cash to restore Some old failed organbeef up his musclesbrighten his blood .
At lunch with her one day, Hamilton and I learned the rigors of medicine thirty-six-hour days, gorgon floor nurses, and flesh-eating bacteria lying in wait around every corner.
Sister Hyacinthe told him, removing his tray, and decided that it might be kind to warn him of certain other events lying in wait for him.
No, McCulloch must surely have done this alone, trusting no one else with his secret, baiting the trap then lying in wait.
Interrupt them every few minutes while they lie in their cells, imagining all sorts of dire and exotic tortures lying in wait for them.
But a dear little creature of these wild lands, who by some miracle was able to speak to me, did just now tell me in words I understood that those same enemies are lying in wait for me, a round dozen of them.
What's it been doing all those years, lurking and biding its time, lying in wait for Rachel?
Whatever the reason, Mouse found nothing, and so she could only cross her fingers that her mother was not lying in wait for her as she slipped out into the upstairs hallway.
I glanced into the shadowy bushes, trying to determine if this male was alone or if there were females lying in wait to spring at me.
Nothing leapt on them in the dark, nor was there anything lying in wait at the mouth of the tunnel.