Word.ws English Dictionary

waive

/weɪv/

More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations

British/wɛjv/

waive verb: to relinquish (a right etc.); to give up claim to; to forgo.

Verb (1)

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

  1. (transitive) To relinquish (a right etc.); to give up claim to; to forgo.
    • If you waive the right to be silent, anything you say can be used against you in a court of law.
    • Exhibiting what the dramatic critics call a "fine restraint," he waives his timely opportunity for discourse upon the celebrated gyascutus, which, as any Northwestern tourist will tell you, haunts the slopes of the most precipitous mountains—always evading capture because its legs, shorter on the...1907, John Ames Mitchell, Life - Volume 50, page 270
    1. (transitive, particularly) To relinquish claim on a payment or fee which would otherwise be due.
    2. (Canada, US, transitive) To release [a player] onto the waiver wire
      • Nearly 1,200 players will be cut, waived, or sent packing, and the scramble to land on a practice squad or catch on elsewhere will move fast.2025 August 24, Ryan Miller, “NFL roster cuts 2025: What to know about 53-man deadline, waivers, and practice squads”, in Rochester Democrat and Chronicle
      • Jaden Ivey has played his last game in Chicago, with the Bulls waiving Ivey following his controversial comments on social media about the LGBTQ community.2026 March 31, Chris Mannix, “Chris Mannix’s NBA Notes: Giannis Antetokounmpo’s Bucks Future, Jaden Ivey’s Ugly Exit”, in Sports Illustrated
  2. (archaic) To put aside, avoid.
    • […] seeing in many such occasions of common life we advisedly do renounce or waive our own opinions, absolutely yielding to the direction of othersa. 1683, Isaac Barrow, Sermon LIX, “Of obedience to our spiritual guides and governors”
  3. (obsolete) To outlaw (someone).
  4. (obsolete) To abandon, give up (someone or something).
    • but she might be waived, and held as abandoned.1851, Alexander Mansfield Burrill, Law Dictionary and Glossary

Verb (2)

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.

Noun

waive (plural waives)

  1. (obsolete) A woman put out of the protection of the law; an outlawed woman.
  2. (obsolete) A waif; a castaway.
    • But vvhat a vvretched, and diſconſolate Hermitage is that Houſe, vvhich is not viſited by thee [God], and vvhat a VVayue, and Stray is that Man, that hath not thy Markes vpon him?1624, John Donne, “13. Prayer”, in Deuotions upon Emergent Occasions, and Seuerall Steps in My Sicknes: […], London: […] A[ugustine] M[atthews] for Thomas Iones, →OCLC, page 329

waive meaning in Tamil, Urdu, Bengali and Malayalam

waive in Tamil

உரிமையை விட்டுவிடுதல், கொடுத்தல், கைவிடு, தள்ளுபடி செய், விட்டுக் கொடு

waive in Urdu

چھوڑنا, ہٹا دینا, مسترد کرنا, مستثنیٰ کرنا, پھینکنا, ترک کرنا

waive in Bengali

মওকুফ করা

waive in Malayalam

ഉപേക്ഷിക്കുക, വേണ്ടെന്നു പറയുക, നിർത്തി വയ്ക്കുക
More languagesFewer languages
waive in Kannada
ಹಕ್ಕು ಬಿಟ್ಟುಕೊಡು, ಮುಂದೆ ಹಾಕು, ಮಾಫಿಮಾಡು, ಬಿಟ್ಟುಕೊಡು

Examples of waive in a sentence

  • The credit card company made an adjustment to my account to waive the late fee.
  • Wimbledon will waive its white-only rule for the Olympic tennis next year.
  • Even if methodological shortcomings were waived, there is no proof of a Hawthorne effect in the original data.

All 11 example sentences with waive

Synonyms of waive

6 more synonymsFewer synonyms

Antonyms

All synonyms and antonyms of waive

Forms of waive

Verb
third-person singular presentwaives
present participlewaiving
past participlewaived
pastwaived
alternative form (obsolete)wave
Noun
pluralwaives

Past tense of waive: waived

Origin of waive

From Middle English weyven (“to avoid, renounce”), from Anglo-Norman weyver (“to abandon, allow to become a waif”), from Old French waif (“waif”), from gaiver (“to abandon”), ultimately of Scandinavian/North Germanic origin; see weyver.

From Middle English weyven (“to wave, waver”), from Old Norse veifa (“to wave, swing”) (Norwegian veiva), from Proto-Germanic *waibijaną.

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

Words formed from waive

Words that rhyme with waive

29 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about waive

What does waive mean?
Waive means to relinquish (a right etc.); to give up claim to; to forgo.
What is waive in Tamil?
Waive in Tamil is உரிமையை விட்டுவிடுதல், கொடுத்தல், கைவிடு. See Waive meaning in Tamil.
What part of speech is waive?
Waive can be a verb or a noun.
How do you pronounce waive?
Waive is pronounced /weɪv/ (UK).
What is the past tense of waive?
The past tense of waive is waived.

Words near waive in the dictionary

  1. Waitt
  2. Waitts
  3. Waitui
  4. Waitulavich
  5. waivable
  6. waive
  7. waived
  8. waiver
  9. waiver wire
  10. waiver wires
  11. waiverable

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: waive (page history and authors); waive (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); waive (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); waive (Bengali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); waive (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); waive (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-waive.wav.

Cite this entry: “waive.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/waive. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.