Library / English Dictionary

WAGER

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 I. (noun) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

The act of gambling

Example:

he did it on a bet

Synonyms:

bet; wager

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Hypernyms ("wager" is a kind of...):

gambling; gaming; play (the act of playing for stakes in the hope of winning (including the payment of a price for a chance to win a prize))

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "wager"):

daily double (a single bet on two horse races in the same day)

exacta; perfecta (a bet that you can pick the first and second finishers in the right order)

parimutuel (betting where winners share the total amount wagered)

parlay (a series of wagers in which the winnings from one wager are used as a stake for the subsequent wagers)

place bet (a bet that a horse will finish a race no worse than second)

superfecta (a bet that you can pick the first four finishers in a race in the right order)

Derivation:

wager (maintain with or as if with a bet)

wager (stake on the outcome of an issue)

Sense 2

Meaning:

The money risked on a gamble

Synonyms:

bet; stake; stakes; wager

Classified under:

Nouns denoting possession and transfer of possession

Hypernyms ("wager" is a kind of...):

gamble (money that is risked for possible monetary gain)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "wager"):

jackpot; kitty; pot (the cumulative amount involved in a game (such as poker))

ante ((poker) the initial contribution that each player makes to the pot)

kitty; pool (the combined stakes of the betters)

Holonyms ("wager" is a part of...):

pool (any communal combination of funds)

Derivation:

wager (stake on the outcome of an issue)

 II. (verb) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Maintain with or as if with a bet

Example:

I bet she will be there!

Synonyms:

bet; wager

Classified under:

Verbs of telling, asking, ordering, singing

Hypernyms (to "wager" is one way to...):

anticipate; call; forebode; foretell; predict; prognosticate; promise (make a prediction about; tell in advance)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s that CLAUSE

Derivation:

wager (the act of gambling)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Stake on the outcome of an issue

Example:

She played all her money on the dark horse

Synonyms:

bet; play; wager

Classified under:

Verbs of fighting, athletic activities

Hypernyms (to "wager" is one way to...):

gamble (play games for money)

Verb group:

play (make bets)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "wager"):

back; bet on; gage; game; punt; stake (place a bet on)

play (make bets)

raise (bet more than the previous player)

see (match or meet)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s
Somebody ----s something

Derivation:

wager (the act of gambling)

wager (the money risked on a gamble)

wagerer (someone who bets)

Credits

 Context examples: 

I daresay that if I had put £ 100 down in front of him, that man would not have given me such complete information as was drawn from him by the idea that he was doing me on a wager.

(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

I will wager my feather-bed that he makes more sense of it.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Meanwhile, I hold you to the terms of your wager.

(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

I’ll wager he took no breakfast this morning, and won’t face his lunch after all the cigarettes I saw him consume.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

They arrived by course of miracle, by winning a thousand-to-one wager against them.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

Thornton had been hurried into the wager, heavy with doubt; and now that he looked at the sled itself, the concrete fact, with the regular team of ten dogs curled up in the snow before it, the more impossible the task appeared.

(The Call of the Wild, by Jack London)

“A fair wager!” cried all the travellers, moving back their benches and trestles, so as to give fair field for the wrestlers.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

And I shall protest against paying the wagers under such circumstances.

(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

If you examine among those documents which he took with him into his retreat, I will lay you a wager that you find the seal with the thumb-mark upon it.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

The three men surrounded Martin, all talking admiringly and at once, until it seemed to him that they were talking against time for a wager.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)