wage (waj)

[ But th' Elfin knight, which ought that warlike wage, Disdained to loose the meed he wonne in fray. Spenser, F. Q., I. iv. 39. 2. That which is paid for a service rendered; what is paid for labor; hire: now usually in the plural. Sometimes the plural form is used as a singular. În common use the word wages is applied specifically to the payment made for manual labor or other labor of a menial or mechanical kind: distinguished (but somewhat vaguely) from salary (which see), and from fee, which de. notes compensation paid to profe ional men, as lawyers and physicians. I am worthy noon odyr wage , But for to dwelle in eendeles woo. IMG:content-1987.png:[blocks in formation] 7. In ceram., to knead, work, or temper, as potters' clay. - To wage one's law, in old Eng. law, to come forward as a defendant, with others, on oath that he (the defendant) owes nothing to the plaintiff in manner as he has declared. See wager. II. in trans. 1. To contend; battle. [Rare.] I abjure all roofs, and choose To wage against the enmity o' the air, To be a comrade with the wolf and owl. Shak., Lear, ii. 4. 212. 2. To serve as a pledge or stake for something else; be opposed as equal stakes in a wager; be equal in value: followed by with. [Rare.] The commodity wages not with the danger. Shak ., Pericles, iv. 2. 34. wagedom (wāj'dum), n . [ wage + -dom.] The method of paying wages for work done. [Rare.] The employer of labour pockets the whole of the incre. ment of value, leaving to the labourers only what they had to start with-viz., their own bodies, plus the cost of their maintenance during the proce , and a small allowance for wear and tear. Such is the modern system of wage dom. Westminster Rev. , CXXVI. 136. wage-earner (wāj'erner), n. One who receives stated wages for labor. Radical manufacturers and traders... have no more thought for the condition of the wage - earners who produce this profit than a Southern planter had for the religious welfare of his gang of slaves. Nineteenth Century, XXVI. 738. wage-fund, wages-fund (wāj'fund, wa'jezfund), n. In pol it. econ., that part of the total Political Poems, etc. (ed. Furnivall), p. 174. productive capital of a country or community IMG:content-1988.png:[blocks in formation] Since thou com plainest of thy service and wages , be content to go back, and what our country will afford I do here promise to give thee. Bunyan , Pilgrim's Progre , i. With a wage usually from twenty to twenty-five shillings a week. Nineteenth Century , XXII. 491. One of the last matters transacted was the i ue of the writs to the sheriffs and borough magistrates for the payment of the wages of the representatives in the house of Stubbs , Const. Hist., § 447. commons. Real wages, in pol it, econ., wages estimated not in money but in their purchasing power over commodities in general; the articles or services which the money wages will purchase. = Syn. 2. Pay, Hire, etc. See salaryl. wage (waj), v.; pret. and pp. waged, ppr. wag ing. [ME. wagen, A certeine friende of yours... had waged with your honour a certeine wager. Guevara, Letters (tr. by Hellowes, 1577), p. 136. I dare wage A you sand ducats, not a man in France Outrides Roseilli. Ford , Love's Sacrifice, i. 2. A new truth! Nay, an old newly come to light; for error cannot wage antiquity with truth. Rev. T. Adams , Works, I. 472. The tenant in the first place must produce his champion, who by throwing down his glove as a gage or pledge thus wages or stipulates battle with the champion of the demandant. Black stone, Com., III. xxii. 21. To venture on; hazard; attempt; encounter. To wake and wage a danger profitle . Shak., Othello, i. 3. 30. 3. To engage in, as in a contest; carry on, as a war; undertake. The second battell was waged a little after Vespas i an was chosen Emperour. Coryat , Crudities, I. 139. What need I wage Other contentious arguments, when I By this alone can proue noe Dietie? Times ' Whistle (E. E. T. S.), p. 5. I am not able to wage law with him. B. Jonson, Staple of News, v. 1. 4t. To let out for pay. Thou that doest live in later times must wage Thy workes for wealth, and life for gold engage. Spenser, F. Q., II. vii. 18. 5. To hire for pay; engage or empley for wages. [Obsolete or prov. Eng.] And yf the i wage men to werre the i wryten hem in numbre; Wol no treserour take hem wages, trauayle the i neuere so sore, Bote [unle ] hij be on nempned in the numbre of hem that ben ywaged. Piers Plowman (C), xxiii. 259. Alexander in the meane season, hauing sent Clean der to wage menne of warre out of Peloponese,... remoued his army to the Citie of Celenas. J. Brende, tr. of Quintus Curtius, iii. The cutler prefers to vegetate on his small earnings than to go as a waged labourer in a "house.' Nineteenth Century , XXIV. 516. 6t. To pay wages to. I would have them well waged for their labour. Latimer , 5th Sermon bef. Edw. VI., 1549. which is employed in paying the wages of labor, as distinguished from the part invested in buildings, machinery, raw materials, etc. See the quotations. Wages, then, depend mainly upon the demand and supply of labour, or, as it is often expre ed, on the proportion between population and capital. By population is here meant the number only of the labouring cla , or rather of those who work for hire; and by capital only circulating capital, and not even the whole of that, but the part which is expended in the direct purchase of labour. To this, however, must be added all funds which, without forming a part of capital, are paid in exchange for labour, such as the wages of soldiers, domestic servants, and all other unproductive labourers. There is unfortunately no mode of expre ing by one familiar term the aggregate of what may be called the wages - fund of a country; and, as the wages of productive labour form nearly the whole of that fund, it is usual to overlook the smaller and le important part, and to say that wages depend on population and capital. It will be convenient to employ this expre ion, remembering, however, to consider it as elliptical, and not as a literal statement of the entire truth. J. S. Mill, Pol. Econ., II. xi. 1. As I understand this pa age [from Mill's "Pol. Econ."], it embraces the following statements: 1st, Wages-fund is a general term, used, in the absence of any other more familiar, to expre the aggregate of all wages at any given time in po e ion of the laboring population; 2nd, on the proportion of this fund to the number of the laboring population depends at any given time the average rate of wages; 3rd, the amount of the fund is determined by the amount of the general wealth which is applied to the direct purchase of labor, whether with a view to productive or to unproductive employment. If the reader will carefully consider these several propositions, I think he will perceive that they do not contain matter which can be properly regarded as open to dispute. The first is little more than a definition.. The second merely amounts to say waggery not all of the United States, all contracts or agreements, whether by parole or in writing, involving wagers are null and void, and the wager or money due thereon cannot be recovered in any court of law. A wager is therefore merely a debt of honor, and if paid it is in the eye of the law the same thing as giving a gratuity, except perhaps as to the liability of a principal to reimburse his agent when the latter has paid it because in honor bound. Ne waiour non with hym thou lay, Ne at the dyces with hym to play. Babees Book (E. E. T. S.), p. 306. Hor. Content. What is the wager ? Luc. Twenty crowns. Shak., T. of the S., v. 2. 69. A wager is a promise to pay money, or transfer property, upon the determination or ascertainment of an uncertain event; the consideration for such a promise is either a present payment or transfer by the other party, or a promise to pay or transfer upon the event determining in a particular way. Anson, Contr., 166. 3. The act of betting; a bet. We'll make a solemn wager on your cunnings. Shak., Hamlet, iv. 7. 156. 4. That on which bets are laid; the subject of a bet. [Rare.] The sea strave with the winds which should bee louder, and the shrouds of the ship, with a gastful no is to them that were in it, witne ed that their ruin was the wager of the other's contention. Sir P. Sidney, Arcadia, ii. 5. In old Eng. law, an offer to make oath of innocence or non-indebtedne ; also, the act of making such oath, the oaths of eleven compurgators being conjoined as fortifying the defendant's oath.- Wager of battle or battel. See battle1. - Wager of law, an old English mode of trial, whereby in an action of debt brought upon a simple contract between the parties, without any deed or record, the defendant might discharge himself by taking an oath that he did not owe the plaintiff anything. He was required, however, to bring with him eleven of his neighbors, called com purgators, who were to avow upon their oath that they believed in their consciences that he declared the truth. -Wager policy. See policy2. wager (wa'jer), v. [ IMG:content-1989.png:[blocks in formation] If we don't make a rise before that time we shall have to become wages -men. their hands. J. E. Cairns, Some Leading Principles of Political [Economy Newly Expounded, II. i. § 5. wagelingt, n. [ -ling1 .] A hireling. These are the very false prophets, the instruments of liars. Satan, the deceivers, wolves, wage lings , Judases, dreamers, Bp. Bale , Select Works, p. 439. ( Davies .) wagen-boom, n. [D., wagen , wagon, + boom , tree (= E. beam ).] Same as wagon -tree. wageourt, n. [ wagen , wage: see wage . ] A hired soldier. Barbour , Bruce, xi. 48. ( Strat mann .) wageouret, n. An obsolete form of wager . wager (wa'jėr), n. [ wageoure , wajour , OF. * wageure , gageure , a wager, wager , pledge, wager: see wage , v.] 1. A pledge; a gage; a guaranty. A wajour he made, so hit wes ytold, Ys heved of to smhyte, yef me him brohte in hold. Execution of Sir Simon Fraser (Child's Ballads, VI. 279). 2. Something hazarded on an uncertain event; a stake. By statutes of England, Scotland, and most if