transitive verb waged, waging wag′·ing

1. to engage in or carry on (a war, struggle, campaign, etc.)
2. Chiefly Brit., Dialectal to hire

Etymology: ME wagen < NormFr wagier (OFr gagier) < wage (OFr gage), a stake, pledge < Frank *wadi, akin to Goth wadi, a pledge: for IE base see wed

noun

1. money paid to an employee for work done, and usually figured on an hourly, daily, or piecework basis
2. what is given in return; recompense; requital: formerly the plural form was often construed as singular “The wages of sin is death”
3. Econ. the share of the total product of industry that goes to labor, as distinguished from the share taken by capital