wage
noun
- reimbursement paid by an employer to an employee
verb
- engage in
Wiktionary
Pronunciation: /weɪd͡ʒ/
noun
Etymology: From Middle English wage, from Anglo-Norman wage, from Old Northern French wage, a northern variant of Old French gauge, guage (whence modern French gage), Medieval Latin wadium, from Frankish *waddī (cognate with Old English wedd), from Proto-Germanic *wadją (“pledge”), from Proto-Indo-European *wedʰ- (“to pledge, redeem a pledge”). Akin to Old Norse veðja (“to pledge”), Gothic 𐍅𐌰𐌳𐌹 (wadi), Dutch wedde. Compare also the doublet gage. More at wed.
- An amount of money paid to a worker for a specified quantity of work, usually calculated on an hourly basis and expressed in an amount of money per hour.
“Before her promotion, her wages were 20% less.”
verb
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 (see the noun above). See Medieval Latin wadiō and wadium for more.
- To wager, bet.
“My life I never held but as a pawn / To wage against thine enemies”
- To expose oneself to, as a risk; to incur, as a danger; to venture; to hazard.
“I fear the power of Percy is too weak / To wage an instant trial with the King.”
“to wake and wage a danger profitless.”
- To employ for wages; to hire.
“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”
“[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.”
- To conduct or carry out (a war or other contest).
“pond'ring which of all his Sons was fit / To Reign, and wage immortal War with Wit”
“The two are waging war, and the one triumphs by the destruction of the other.”
- To adventure, or lay out, for hire or reward; to hire out.
“Thou that doest liue in later times, must wage / Thy workes for wealth, and life for gold engage.”
- To give security for the performance of.