Word.ws English Dictionary

waiver wire

waiver wire noun: a league-wide list to which an inexperienced player is added for a short period when cut from a team's roster; any team in the league may make a claim for the player during the period, at the end of which the lowest ranking claimant has right of first refusal, or the player may become a free agent if unclaimed.

Noun

waiver wire (countable and uncountable, plural waiver wires)

  1. (Canada, US) a league-wide list to which an inexperienced player is added for a short period when cut from a team's roster; any team in the league may make a claim for the player during the period, at the end of which the lowest ranking claimant has right of first refusal, or the player may become a free agent if unclaimed
    • Typically, the waiver wire process is 24 hours, but on cutdown day, it’s slightly shorter.2025 August 26, Saad Yousuf, “NFL waiver wire explained: What happens when players are released on cutdown day”, in The Athletic, The New York Times
    Synonyms:
    waivers
  2. (Canada, US) a similar period during which managers can claim a player, with successful claimants decided in various ways depending on the league.

Synonyms of waiver wire

Forms of waiver wire

pluralwaiver wires

Origin of waiver wire

"Wire" in the sense of telecommunications. The original waiver wire was "a network of telex communications where the status of all players is made known to all of the clubs".

Questions about waiver wire

What does waiver wire mean?
Waiver wire means a league-wide list to which an inexperienced player is added for a short period when cut from a team's roster; any team in the league may make a claim for the player during the period, at the end of which the lowest ranking claimant has right of first refusal, or the player may become a free agent if unclaimed.
What part of speech is waiver wire?
Waiver wire is a noun.
What is the plural of waiver wire?
The plural of waiver wire is waiver wires.

Words near waiver wire in the dictionary

  1. Waitulavich
  2. waivable
  3. waive
  4. waived
  5. waiver
  6. waiver wire
  7. waiver wires
  8. waiverable
  9. waivered
  10. waiverer
  11. waiverers

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: waiver wire (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:

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