wage

[O. Fr. wage, gage =a gage, pledge, guarantee, from wager, gager, gagier =to wage (q. v.).] *1. A gage, a pledge, a stake. "The elfin knight, which ought that warlike wage , Disdained to loose the meed he wonne in fray." Spenser: F. Q., I. iv. 39. 2. Hire; pay for services. (Now generally used in the plural.) "Ilk man thou reft his wage ." Robert de Brunne , p. 319. *wage'-dom, s. [Eng. wage , s.; -dom.] The system of paying wages for work done. "By the substitution of industrial partnership in place of wagedom."-London Daily Chronicle.