wager of battel

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.]
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