Webster
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Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary · 1913

Waive

Waive, n. [See Waive, v. t. ] 1. A waif; a castaway. [Obs.] Donne.

2. (O. Eng. Law) A woman put out of the protection of the law. See Waive, v. t., 3 (b), and the Note.

Waive, v. 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, v. i. To turn aside; to recede. [Obs.]

To waive from the word of Solomon. Chaucer.

Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Noah Porter, editor (Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913). Public domain. Text as transcribed by MICRA, Inc., from Project Gutenberg. Changed for Deep Dive Bible: Greek, which our source spelled in Latin letters, set in Greek letters; entries of one spelling merged into one article; Greek words our source left out (shown as “?”), read from the 1898 printing, from the same plates (the Library of Congress’s copy), where the place could be found with certainty.