Wā'ger1, n.
n. [O. Fr. waigiere, gagiere, gagerie, N. Fr. gageure. See supra.]
Sense 1. Something deposited, laid, or hazarded, on the event of a contest or some unsettled question; a bet; a stake; a pledge.
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. Bentley.
Sense 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.
At common law an action could not be maintained on a wager, if it was contrary to public policy, or immoral, or in any other respect tended to the detriment of the public, or if it affected the interest, feelings, or character of a third person. In many of the United States an action can be sustained upon any wager or bet. Chitty. Bouvier.
Sense 3. That on which bets are laid.
Wager of battle (Anc. 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 or pledge, thus waged or stipulated battle with the champion of the demandant, who, by taking up the glove, accepted the challenge. The wager of battle, which has been long in disuse, was abolished in England in 1820, by a statute passed in consequence of a defendant's having waged his battle in a case which arose about that period. See BATTLE.—Wager of law, the giving of gage or sureties by a defendant in an action of debt, that at a certain day assigned he would take an 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), a policy without any real interest to support it; one in which the parties, by express terms, disclaim, on the face of it, the intention of making a contract of indemnity. It is generally known by the clauses, “Interest or no interest,” “Without further proof of interest than the policy,” and the like. Such policies are generally held to be illegal. See POLICY. Arnold. Kent.