Crossword Genius

They wait in groups, standing outside the hospital room (8)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

stewards

I'm a little stuck... Click here to teach me more about this clue!

'they wait' is the definition.
Although both the answer and 'wait' are nouns, they are not in the same form of the noun.

'groups standing outside the hospital room' is the wordplay.
'groups' becomes 'sets' (set is a kind of group**).
'standing' shows that the letters should be reversed in order.
'outside' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'the hospital room' becomes 'ward' (I've seen this before).
'sets' reversed gives 'stes'.
'stes' going around 'ward' is 'STEWARDS'.

'in' acts as a link.

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for stewards that I've seen before include "Persons employed to manage estates" , "They look after passengers on aircraft and ships" , "Officials who manage race meetings" , "Racing authorities" , "Those who manage property, etc for someone else" .)

I've seen this clue in the Evening Standard.
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