Besides these plates for horse races, the wagers may
be as the persons please. --Sir W.
Temple.
If any atheist can stake his soul for a wager
against such an inexhaustible disproportion, let him
never hereafter accuse others of credulity.
--Bentley.
2. (Law) A contract by which two parties or more agree that a
certain sum of money, or other thing, shall be paid or
delivered to one of them, on the happening or not
happening of an uncertain event. --Bouvier.
Note: At common law a wager is considered as a legal contract
which the courts must enforce unless it be on a subject
contrary to public policy, or immoral, or tending to
the detriment of the public, or affecting the interest,
feelings, or character of a third person. In many of
the United States an action can not be sustained upon
any wager or bet. --Chitty. --Bouvier.
3. That on which bets are laid; the subject of a bet.
{Wager of battel}, or {Wager of battle} (O. Eng. Law), the
giving of gage, or pledge, for trying a cause by single
combat, formerly allowed in military, criminal, and civil
causes. In writs of right, where the trial was by
champions, the tenant produced his champion, who, by
throwing down his glove as a gage, thus waged, or
stipulated, battle with the champion of the demandant,
who, by taking up the glove, accepted the challenge. The
wager of battel, which has been long in disuse, was
abolished in England in 1819, by a statute passed in
consequence of a defendant's having waged his battle in a
case which arose about that period. See {Battel}.
{Wager of law} (Law), the giving of gage, or sureties, by a
defendant in an action of debt, that at a certain day
assigned he would take a law, or oath, in open court, that
he did not owe the debt, and at the same time bring with
him eleven neighbors (called compurgators), who should
avow upon their oaths that they believed in their
consciences that he spoke the truth.
{Wager policy}. (Insurance Law) See under {Policy}.
And wagered with him Pieces of gold 'gainst this which
he wore. --Shak.
'T was merry when You wagered on your angling. --Shak.
{Wagering, or gambling}, {contract}. A contract which is of
the nature of wager. Contracts of this nature include
various common forms of valid commercial contracts, as
contracts of insurance, contracts dealing in futures,
options, etc. Other wagering contracts and bets are now
generally made illegal by statute against betting and
gambling, and wagering has in many cases been made a
criminal offence. Wages \Wa"ges\, n. pl. (Theoretical
Economics)
The share of the annual product or national dividend which
goes as a reward to labor, as distinct from the remuneration
received by capital in its various forms. This economic or
technical sense of the word wages is broader than the current
sense, and includes not only amounts actually paid to
laborers, but the remuneration obtained by those who sell the
products of their own work, and the wages of superintendence
or management, which are earned by skill in directing the
work of others.