wage
Language: English
Part of speech: verb
Pronunciation: ipa: /weɪd͡ʒ/
rhymes: -eɪdʒ
Forms: form: wages
form: waging
form: waged
form: waged
Etymology: From Middle English wagen (“to pledge”), from Anglo-Norman, Old Northern French wagier, a northern variant of Old French guagier (whence modern French gager), itself either from guage or from a derivative of Frankish *waddī, possibly through a Vulgar Latin intermediate *wadiō from *wadium.
Senses: examples: text: My life I never held but as a pawn / To wage against thine enemies
ref: c. 1603–1606, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of King Lear”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, (please specify the act number in uppercase Roman numerals, and the scene number in lowercase Roman numerals):
glosses: To wager, bet.
examples: text: I fear the power of Percy is too weak / To wage an instant trial with the King.
ref: c. 1597 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The First Part of Henry the Fourth, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, (please specify the act number in uppercase Roman numerals, and the scene number in lowercase Roman numerals):
text: to wake and wage a danger profitless.
ref: c. 1603–1604 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Othello, the Moore of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene iii]:
glosses: To expose oneself to, as a risk; to incur, as a danger; to venture; to hazard.
examples: text: Thenne said Arthur I wille goo with yow / Nay said the kynges ye shalle not at this tyme / for ye haue moche to doo yet in these landes / therfore we wille departe / and with the grete goodes that we haue goten in these landes by youre yeftes we shalle wage good knyghtes & withstande the kynge Claudas malyce
ref: 1485, Sir Thomas Malory, “xviij”, in Le Morte Darthur, book I:
text: [B]etter it as for him to trie the vttermoſt pointe of fortunes happe, than with diſhonour ſo to yeelde at the firſt blow of hyr frowarde hande, conſidering the abundance of treaſure whiche he had in ſtore, wherewith hee might wage ſouldiers and menne of warre out of Germanie and other places, in number ſufficient to matche with his enimies.
ref: 1577, Raphaell Holinshed, “The Historie of Scotlande, […]”, in The Firste Volume of the Chronicles of England, Scotlande, and Irelande […], volume I, London: […] [Henry Bynneman] for Iohn Hunne, →OCLC, page 113, column 1:
glosses: To employ for wages; to hire.
examples: text: pond'ring which of all his Sons was fit / To Reign, and wage immortal War with Wit
ref: 1709, John Dryden, Mac Flecknoe:
text: The two are waging war, and the one triumphs by the destruction of the other.
ref: 1832, [Isaac Taylor], Saturday Evening. […], London: Holdsworth and Ball, →OCLC:
text: Setting our sights back on King’s Landing, where the Last War will be waged, makes a lot of sense, even if it does feel a bit anticlimactic after last week’s deadly, blustery maelstrom.
ref: 2019 May 5, Danette Chavez, “Campaigns are Waged On and Off the Game Of Thrones Battlefield (Newbies)”, in The A.V. Club, archived from the original on 28 Jan 2021:
glosses: To conduct or carry out (a war or other contest).
examples: text: Thou that doest liue in later times, must wage / Thy workes for wealth, and life for gold engage.
ref: 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book II, Canto VII”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, stanza 18:
glosses: To adventure, or lay out, for hire or reward; to hire out.
topics: law
glosses: To give security for the performance of.
Derived terms: word: wager