catflap.org Online Dictionary Query

  wager \wa"ger\ (w[=a]"j[~e]r), n. [OE. wager, wajour, OF.
     wagiere, or wageure, F. gageure. See Wage, v. t.]
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     1. Something deposited, laid, or hazarded on the event of a
        contest or an unsettled question; a bet; a stake; a
        pledge.
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              Besides these plates for horse races, the wagers may
              be as the persons please.             --Sir W.
                                                    Temple.
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              If any atheist can stake his soul for a wager
              against such an inexhaustible disproportion, let him
              never hereafter accuse others of credulity.
                                                    --Bentley.
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     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.
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     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.
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     3. That on which bets are laid; the subject of a bet.
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     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.
  
     Wagering contract 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. [Webster 1913 Suppl.]
        [1913 Webster]