waive Meaning, Definition & Usage

  1. verb do without or cease to hold or adhere to
    relinquish; foreswear; forego; forgo; dispense with.
    • We are dispensing with formalities
    • relinquish the old ideas
  2. verb lose (s.th.) or lose the right to (s.th.) by some error, offense, or crime
    throw overboard; forego; forfeit; forgo; give up.
    • you've forfeited your right to name your successor
    • forfeited property

WordNet

Waive noun
Etymology
See Waive, v. t.
Definitions
  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 transitive verb
Etymology
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.
Wordforms
imperfect & past participle Waived ; present participle & verbal noun Waiving
Definitions
  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 intransitive verb
Definitions
  1. To turn aside; to recede. Obs.
    To waive from the word of Solomon. Chaucer.

Webster 1913