2. [Perhaps shortened from wag-halter a rogue.] A man full of sport and
humor; a ludicrous fellow; a humorist; a wit; a joker.
We wink at wags when they offend.
Dryden.
A counselor never pleaded without a piece of pack thread in his hand,
which he used to twist about a finger all the while he was speaking;
the wags used to call it the thread of his discourse.
Addison.
||Wa*ga"ti (?), n. (Zoöl.) A small East Indian wild cat (Felis wagati),
||regarded by some as a variety of the leopard cat.
||
Wage (?), v. t. [imp. & p. p. Waged (?); p. pr. & vb. n. Waging (?).]
[OE. wagen, OF. wagier, gagier, to pledge, promise, F. gager to wager,
lay, bet, fr. LL. wadium a pledge; of Teutonic origin; cf. Goth. wadi a
pledge, gawadjn to pledge, akin to E. wed, G. wette a wager. See Wed,
and cf. Gage.]
1. To pledge; to hazard on the event of a contest; to stake; to bet, to
lay; to wager; as, to wage a dollar. Hakluyt.
My life I never but as a pawn To wage against thy enemies.
Shak.
2. To expose one's self to, as a risk; to incur, as a danger; to
venture; to hazard. "Too weak to wage an instant trial with the king."
Shak.
To wake and wage a danger profitless.
Shak.
3. To engage in, as a contest, as if by previous gage or pledge; to
carry on, as a war.
[He pondered] which of all his sons was fit To reign and wage immortal
war with wit.
Dryden.
The two are waging war, and the one triumphs by the destruction of the
other.