Definify.com
Webster 1913 Edition
Waive
1.
A waif; a castaway.
[Obs.]
Donne.
2.
(O. Eng. Law)
Waive
,Verb.
T.
[
imp. & p. p.
Waived
; p. pr. & vb. n.
Waiving
.] [OE.
waiven
, weiven
, to set aside, remove, OF. weyver
, quesver
, to waive, of Scand. origin; cf. Icel. veifa
to wave, to vibrate, akin to Skr. vip
to tremble. Cf. Vibrate
, Waif
.] [Written also
wave
.] 1.
To relinquish; to give up claim to; not to insist on or claim; to refuse; to forego.
He
waiveth
milk, and flesh, and all. Chaucer.
We absolutely do renounce or
waive
our own opinions, absolutely yielding to the direction of others. Barrow.
2.
To throw away; to cast off; to reject; to desert.
3.
(Law)
(a)
To throw away; to relinquish voluntarily, as a right which one may enforce if he chooses.
(b)
(O. Eng. Law)
To desert; to abandon.
Burrill.
☞ The term was applied to a woman, in the same sense as outlaw to a man. A woman could not be outlawed, in the proper sense of the word, because, according to Bracton, she was never in law, that is, in a frankpledge or decennary; but she might be waived, and held as abandoned.
Burrill.
Waive
,Verb.
I.
To turn aside; to recede.
[Obs.]
To
waive
from the word of Solomon. Chaucer.
Webster 1828 Edition
Waive
WAIVE
,Noun.
Definition 2024
waive
waive
English
Verb
waive (third-person singular simple present waives, present participle waiving, simple past and past participle waived)
- (obsolete) To outlaw (someone).
- (obsolete) To abandon, give up (someone or something).
- 1851, Alexander Mansfield Burrill, Law Dictionary and Glossary:
- but she might be waived, and held as abandoned.
-
- (transitive, law) To relinquish (a right etc.); to give up claim to; to forego.
- If you waive the right to be silent, anything you say can be used against you in a court of law.
- c. 1390, Geoffrey Chaucer, The Canterbury Tales, The Manciple’s Tale:
- Lat take a cat, and fostre hym wel with milk, / And tendre flessh, and make his couche of silk, / And lat hym seen a mous go by the wal, / Anon he weyveth milk and flessh and al […].
- (now rare) To put aside, avoid.
- (Can we date this quote?), Barrow, Of obedience to our spiritual guides and governors, Sermon LIX:
- We absolutely do renounce or waive our own opinions, absolutely yielding to the direction of others.
-
Translations
to outlaw
to relinquish; to give up claim to
to put aside, avoid
Derived terms
Related terms
Etymology 2
From Middle English weyven, from Old Norse veifa (“to wave, swing”) (Norwegian veiva), from Proto-Germanic *waibijaną.
Verb
waive (third-person singular simple present waives, present participle waiving, simple past and past participle waived)
- (obsolete) To move from side to side; to sway.
- (intransitive, obsolete) To stray, wander.
- c. 1390, Geoffrey Chaucer, “The Merchant’s Tale”, Canterbury Tales:
- ye been so ful of sapience / That yow ne liketh, for youre heighe prudence, / To weyven fro the word of Salomon.
- c. 1390, Geoffrey Chaucer, “The Merchant’s Tale”, Canterbury Tales:
Translations
to sway
|
Etymology 3
From Anglo-Norman waive, probably as the past participle of weyver, as Etymology 1, above.
Noun
waive (plural waives)
- (obsolete, law) A woman put out of the protection of the law; an outlawed woman.
- (obsolete) A waif; a castaway.
- John Donne
- […] what a wretched, and disconsolate hermitage is that house, which is not visited by thee, and what a waive and stray is that man, that hath not thy marks upon him?
- John Donne
Translations
outlawed woman