waive
/weɪv
/verb [with object]
1Refrain from insisting on or using (a right or claim): he will waive all rights to the money...
- Before that could go ahead, she had to sign legal documents waiving any right of recompense should the surgery go wrong.
- He said he would waive claims against the government if the authorities agreed to this figure.
- The Duke spares Shylock's life and offers to waive the state's claim to half Shylock's wealth, requiring only a fine.
Synonyms
relinquish, renounce, give up, abandon, reject, surrender, yield, cede, do without, dispense with, set/put aside, abdicate, abjure, sacrifice, refuse, turn down, spurn, sign away
1.1Refrain from demanding compliance with (a rule or fee): her tuition fees would be waived...
- Cantor ended uncertainty by saying it will pay performance bonuses at the end of the year to the families of victims, waiving a rule that employees must work to the end of the period.
- The fee is waived if you spend more than £50,000 a year on the card.
- The Oval Room has introduced a BYO Wine Night on Saturday, waiving the corkage fee.
Synonyms
disregard, ignore, overlook, set aside, forgo, drop, omit, cast aside, brush aside
Usage
Waive is sometimes confused with wave. Waive means ‘refrain from insisting on or demanding’, as in he will waive all rights to the money or her fees would be waived, whereas the much more common word wave means ‘move to and fro’. A waiver is a document recording that a right or claim has been waived, whereas to waver is to move in a quivering way or be undecided between two alternatives.
Origin
Middle English (originally as a legal term relating to removal of the protection of the law): from an Anglo-Norman French variant of Old French gaiver 'allow to become a waif, abandon'.