See also: waiting period (Six-Day War)

A 'waiting period' is a period of time which one must wait in order for a specific action to occur, after that action is requested or mandated.

The term is commonly used in reference to gun control in the United States, where some U.S. states required a person to wait for a set number of days after buying or reserving a firearm at a dealer before actually taking possession of it.

Waiting periods are also used for new insurance, particularly health insurance and flood insurance. Incidents which occur during this time are not claimable. The term may also refer to the time between the making of a claim and the payment of it, also called the elimination period.

In business finance, a waiting period is the time in which a company making an IPO must be silent about it, so as not to inflate the value of the stock artificially. It is also called the quiet period or cooling-off period.

Other things possibly subject to waiting periods include divorce and merger proceedings, among others.

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