wage

[ weyj ]

noun

1. Often wages. money that is paid or received for work or services, as by the hour, day, or week. Compare living wage, minimum wage.

   Synonyms: remuneration, compensation, emolument, earnings

2. Usually wages. Economics. the share of the products of industry received by labor for its work (as distinct from the share going to capital).
3. Usually wages. (used with a singular or plural verb) recompense or return:

   The wages of sin is death.

4. Obsolete. a pledge or security.

verb (used with object)

, waged, wag·ing.

1. to carry on (a battle, war, conflict, argument, etc.):

   to wage war against a nation.

   Synonyms: prosecute, undertake

2. Chiefly British Dialect. to hire.
3. Obsolete.
   1. to stake or wager.
   2. to pledge.

verb (used without object)

, waged, wag·ing.

1. Obsolete. to contend; struggle.

wage

/ weɪdʒ /

noun

1. 1. often plural payment in return for work or services, esp that made to workmen on a daily, hourly, weekly, or piece-work basis Compare salary
   2. ( as modifier )

      wage freeze

2. plural economics the portion of the national income accruing to labour as earned income, as contrasted with the unearned income accruing to capital in the form of rent, interest, and dividends
3. often plural recompense, return, or yield
4. an obsolete word for pledge

verb

1. to engage in
2. obsolete.
   to pledge or wager
3. archaic.
   another word for hire hire

Derived Forms

• ˈwagelessness, noun
• ˈwageless, adjective

Other Words From

• wageless adjective
• wageless·ness noun
• under·wage noun

Word History and Origins

Origin of wage¹

First recorded in 1275–1325; (noun) Middle English: “pledge, security,” from Anglo-French; Old French guage gage ¹, from unattested Vulgar Latin wadium, from Germanic ( wed ); (verb) Middle English wagen “to pledge,” from Anglo-French wagier; Old French guagier, from unattested Vulgar Latin wadiāre, derivative of wadium

Word History and Origins

Origin of wage¹

C14: from Old Northern French wagier to pledge, from wage, of Germanic origin; compare Old English weddian to pledge, wed

Synonym Study

See pay ¹.

Example Sentences

Minimum-wage debates for years have been tempered by warnings that companies would lay off many people to pay higher wages to some.

From Washington Post

He might have, for example, made it de rigueur for large companies to help employees in entry-level jobs work their way into a solid middle-class life, with strong wages and fair benefits.

From Quartz

He might have, for example, made Amazon the kind of place that helps employees in entry-level jobs work their way into a solid middle-class life, with strong wages and fair benefits.

From Quartz

So higher wages mean higher spending, which means faster economic growth.

From Vox

Another league executive said the partnership will have a focus on wage equality for female athletes and that 50 percent of revenue going to the players was a big motivator.

From FiveThirtyEight

He was treated like an immigrant, working for minimum wage, missing his family and having to move on from his musical career.

From The Daily Beast

Of course, declining or stagnant wage growth started well before this president took office.

From The Daily Beast

Even public-service lawyering jobs, while underpaid for the field, still pay better than low-wage warehouse labor.

From The Daily Beast

The Supreme Court just handed a big holiday present to low-wage workers across America in the form of a giant f*ck you.

From The Daily Beast

Who will want to enter this profession for a poverty wage and little or no paid time off?

From The Daily Beast

Cincinnatus will not back to his plow, or, at the best, stands sullenly between his plow-handles arguing for a higher wage.

From Project Gutenberg

If the high wage is paid and the short hours are granted, then the price of the thing made, so it seems, rises higher still.

From Project Gutenberg

The single employer rightly knows that there is a wage higher than he can pay and hours shorter than he can grant.

From Project Gutenberg

They wage war as a tribe on account of wrongs done to a private individual.

From Project Gutenberg

The minimum wage law ought to form, in one fashion or another, a part of the code of every community.

From Project Gutenberg