wage
- Often wages. money that is paid or received for work or services, as by the hour, day, or week.Compare living wage, minimum wage.
- Usually wages. Economics. the share of the products of industry received by labor for its work (as distinct from the share going to capital).
- Usually wages. (used with a singular or plural verb) recompense or return: The wages of sin is death.
- Obsolete. a pledge or security.
- to carry on (a battle, war, conflict, argument, etc.): to wage war against a nation.
- Chiefly British Dialect. to hire.
- Obsolete.
- to stake or wager.
- to pledge.
- Obsolete. to contend; struggle.
Origin of wage
Synonyms
See more synonyms for wage on Thesaurus.comExamples from the Web for wages
Contemporary Examples
On Friday, the stock market hit new highs—even as wages were stagnating.
Harping about a Republican war on women while wages stagnate and growth sputters is trivial and desperate.
Annual wages range from $10,000-$13,000, well below the poverty line of $23,000 for a family of four.
Wages are stagnant and middle-class household incomes continue to decline.
The miners themselves went on strike again and again, trying to get their wages raised.
Historical Examples
Then you could have stayed in the factory, and got your wages regularly every week.
Brave and BoldHoratio Alger
So I am to report my discharge to you, and ask you for my wages.
Brave and BoldHoratio Alger
Do not show yourselves ungrateful to the Corn by denying her servants their wages.
The Trail BookMary Austin
The next spring he hired me regular and give me wages every month.
The UnderdogF. Hopkinson Smith
I now got my wages for the Canton voyage; but they lasted me only a fortnight!
Ned MyersJames Fenimore Cooper
wage
- (often plural)payment in return for work or services, esp that made to workmen on a daily, hourly, weekly, or piece-work basisCompare salary
- (as modifier)wage freeze
- (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
- (often plural) recompense, return, or yield
- an obsolete word for pledge
- to engage in
- obsolete to pledge or wager
- archaic another word for hire (def. 1), hire (def. 2)
Word Origin
Word Origin and History for wages
wage
v.
early 14c., "to pledge, deposit as a pledge," from Old North French wagier (Old French gagier), from wage (see wage (n.)). Meaning "to carry on" (of war, etc.) is attested from mid-15c., probably from earlier sense of "to offer as a gage of battle" (early 15c.). Related: Waged; waging.
wage
n.
c.1300, "a payment for services rendered," also in Middle English "a pledge of security" (mid-14c.), from Old North French wage (Old French guage) "pledge," from Frankish *wadja- (cf. Old English wedd, Gothic wadi "pledge"); see wed. Modern French cognate gages (plural) means "wages of a domestic," one of a plethora of French words for different classes, e.g. traitement (university professor), paye, salaire (workman), solde (soldier), récompense, prix. The Old English word was lean, related to loan and representing the usual Germanic form (cf. Gothic laun, Dutch loon, German lohn).
wages
Payment for services to a worker, usually remuneration on an hourly, daily, or weekly basis.