Source : Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)

Wager \Wa"ger\, n. [OE. wager, wajour, OF. wagiere, or wageure,
   E. gageure. See {Wage}, v. t.]
   1. Something deposited, laid, or hazarded on the event of a
      contest or an unsettled question; a bet; a stake; a
      pledge.

            Besides these plates for horse races, the wagers may
            be as the persons please.             --Sir W.
                                                  Temple.

            If any atheist can stake his soul for a wager
            against such an inexhaustible disproportion, let him
            never hereafter accuse others of credulity.
                                                  --Bentley.

   2. (Law) A contract by which two parties or more agree that a
      certain sum of money, or other thing, shall be paid or
      delivered to one of them, on the happening or not
      happening of an uncertain event. --Bouvier.

   Note: At common law a wager is considered as a legal contract
         which the courts must enforce unless it be on a subject
         contrary to public policy, or immoral, or tending to
         the detriment of the public, or affecting the interest,
         feelings, or character of a third person. In many of
         the United States an action can not be sustained upon
         any wager or bet. --Chitty. --Bouvier.

   3. That on which bets are laid; the subject of a bet.

   {Wager of battel}, or {Wager of battle} (O. Eng. Law), the
      giving of gage, or pledge, for trying a cause by single
      combat, formerly allowed in military, criminal, and civil
      causes. In writs of right, where the trial was by
      champions, the tenant produced his champion, who, by
      throwing down his glove as a gage, thus waged, or
      stipulated, battle with the champion of the demandant,
      who, by taking up the glove, accepted the challenge. The
      wager of battel, which has been long in disuse, was
      abolished in England in 1819, by a statute passed in
      consequence of a defendant's having waged his battle in a
      case which arose about that period. See {Battel}.

   {Wager of law} (Law), the giving of gage, or sureties, by a
      defendant in an action of debt, that at a certain day
      assigned he would take a law, or oath, in open court, that
      he did not owe the debt, and at the same time bring with
      him eleven neighbors (called compurgators), who should
      avow upon their oaths that they believed in their
      consciences that he spoke the truth.

   {Wager policy}. (Insurance Law) See under {Policy}.

Wager \Wa"ger\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. {Wagered}; p. pr. & vb. n.
   {Wagering}.]
   To hazard on the issue of a contest, or on some question that
   is to be decided, or on some casualty; to lay; to stake; to
   bet.

         And wagered with him Pieces of gold 'gainst this which
         he wore.                                 --Shak.

Wager \Wa"ger\, v. i.
   To make a bet; to lay a wager.

         'T was merry when You wagered on your angling. --Shak.

Wager \Wa"ger\, n.

   {Wagering, or gambling}, {contract}. A contract which is of
      the nature of wager. Contracts of this nature include
      various common forms of valid commercial contracts, as
      contracts of insurance, contracts dealing in futures,
      options, etc. Other wagering contracts and bets are now
      generally made illegal by statute against betting and
      gambling, and wagering has in many cases been made a
      criminal offence. Wages \Wa"ges\, n. pl. (Theoretical
   Economics)
   The share of the annual product or national dividend which
   goes as a reward to labor, as distinct from the remuneration
   received by capital in its various forms. This economic or
   technical sense of the word wages is broader than the current
   sense, and includes not only amounts actually paid to
   laborers, but the remuneration obtained by those who sell the
   products of their own work, and the wages of superintendence
   or management, which are earned by skill in directing the
   work of others.

Source : WordNet®

wager
     n 1: the act of gambling; "he did it on a bet" [syn: {bet}]
     2: the money risked on a gamble [syn: {stake}, {stakes}, {bet}]
     v 1: stake on the outcome of an issue; "I bet $100 on that new
          horse"; "She played all her money on the dark horse"
          [syn: {bet}, {play}]
     2: maintain with or as if with a bet; "I bet she will be
        there!" [syn: {bet}]