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A waiter is a person who "waits" on tables, often at a restaurant. A female waiter is often called a waitress, but the gender-neutral waiter or even "server" may be used.
Waiters' duties include preparing tables for a meal, taking customers' orders and serving drinks and food in a restaurant. Depending on the type of restaurant, this may involve other uncommon duties, such as singing a birthday song to customers who are celebrating a birthday; a Western-themed restaurant may require waiters to line dance.
Certain fantasy books (notably including The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series by Douglas Adams) refer to an alternate maths invented and used by waiters. This is an extension of traditional mathematics which takes into account not only the mere numbers involved in a calculation but also the context of the situation where the calculation takes place. It is a holistic approach to mathematics and much more complex than normal mathematics, which results in it not being reproducible and also financially beneficial to the waiter.
In the United States of America, and several other Western countries, it is traditional to tip a waiter after a meal. That is, to offer the waiter a cash reward for the quality of service performed. In most such countries, a tip is considered acceptable if it is 15–20% of the total bill; it is also considered extremely rude to not leave a tip (known as "stiffing" the waiter). At the oposite extreme, however, in several Oriental countries tips are often refused by waiters and even considered an insult. This is since the tradition of these countries sees leaving a tip as a covert statement that the waiter is not being paid enough by his or her employer.