Wāge1, v. t.
v. t. [imp. & p. p. WAGED; p. pr. & vb. n. WAGING.] [O. Fr. wager, waigier, gager, gagier, to pledge, promise, N. Fr. gager, to wager, lay, bet, from O. Fr. wage, gage, guarantee, engagement, L. Lat. wadium, vadium, guadium, from Goth. wadi, A-S. wedd, wed, a pledge, promise. See WED and WAGES.]
Sense 1. To pledge; to hazard on the event of a contest; to stake; to bet; to lay; to wager; as, to wage a dollar.
Sense 2. To expose one's self to, as a risk; to incur, as a danger; to venture; to hazard. “To wake, and wage, a danger profitless.” Shak. “To wage an instant trial.” Shak.
Sense 3. To engage in, as a contest, as if by previous gage or pledge; to carry on, as a war.
He pondered which of all his sons was fit To reign, and wage immortal war with wit. Dryden.
The two are waging war, and the one triumphs by the destruction of the other. L. Taylor.
Sense 4. To adventure or lay out for hire or reward; to hire out. [Obs.]
Thou must wage Thy works for wealth. Spenser.
Sense 5. To put upon wages; to hire; to employ; to pay wages to. [Obs.] “Abundance of treasure which he had in store, wherewith he might wage soldiers.” Holinshed.
I would have them waged for their labor. Latimer.
Sense 6. (O. Eng. Law.) To give security for the performance of. Burrill.
To wage battle, to give gage or security for joining in the duellum, or combat. Burrill. — To wage one's law, to give security to make one's law — a proceeding which consisted in a defendant's discharging himself from a claim on his own oath, and on the oaths of eleven of his neighbors, called compurgators, swearing that they believed his denial to be true, upon which he was acquitted without further inquiry. See COMPURGATIVE.