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Webster 1913 Edition


Waive

Waive

,
Noun.
[See
Waive
,
Verb.
T.
]
1.
A waif; a castaway.
[Obs.]
Donne.
2.
(O. Eng. Law)
A woman put out of the protection of the law. See
Waive
,
Verb.
T.
, 3
(b)
, and the Note.

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.
A woman put out of the protection of the law.

Definition 2024


waive

waive

English

Verb

waive (third-person singular simple present waives, present participle waiving, simple past and past participle waived)

  1. (obsolete) To outlaw (someone).
  2. (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.
  3. (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 […].
  4. (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
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)

  1. (obsolete) To move from side to side; to sway.
  2. (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.
Translations

Etymology 3

From Anglo-Norman waive, probably as the past participle of weyver, as Etymology 1, above.

Noun

waive (plural waives)

  1. (obsolete, law) A woman put out of the protection of the law; an outlawed woman.
  2. (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?
Translations