Also 8 waivure, 9 waver. [a. AF. weyver (Britton, 13th c.), subst. use of the inf. weyver WAIVE v.1: see -ER4.]
1. Law. The action or an act of waiving; dispensing with a requirement, an express or implicit declining to avail oneself of a known right or to assert a claim.
1628. Coke, On Litt., § 660. 348 b. It appeareth, that the right of the Estate taile discending to him either within age, or of full age, shall worke a Remitter in him, for that the waiuer of the state should haue bin to his losse and preiudice.
1675. Sheppard, Grand Abridgm., IV. 192. This word Waiver is sometimes applyed to an Estate, or something that is made or conveyed to a man, and so it signifieth nothing else but the Refusal to accept of the thing so made and conveyed. And sometimes it is applyed to a plea, and then signifieth a Refusal to stand to a former Plea pleaded, and the pleading a new.
1741. T. Robinson, Gavelkind, vi. 116. But the Court held, that the Parol ought not to demur, for that the Infant is out of Court, and by the Waivure the Original is determined against her.
1812. Brougham, Sp. Orders in Council, Wks. 1873, X. 50. That a conduct like this would … throw a single obstacle in the way of exerting on the morrow the very same rights, of which next Saturday’s Gazette should contain the waiver.
1817. W. Selwyn, Law Nisi Prius (ed. 4), II. 677. Where rent is usually paid at a banker’s, if the banker, without any special authority, receives rent accruing after expiration of notice to quit, it will not operate as a waver.
1818. Cruise, Digest (ed. 2), III. 335. The taking such subsequent estate was his own folly, and shall be looked upon as a waiver of his prior right.
1838. W. Bell, Dict. Law Scot., 849. That in this instance the express consent of the tenant amounted to a waiver of the statutory warning.
1846. Ld. Campbell, Chancellors, cviii. IV. 127, note. Hallam is of opinion that the first two Georges, by their frequent visits to Hanover, made a bad return for the waiver of the condition on which they were invited to the throne.
a. 1850. J. C. Calhoun, Wks. (1874), IV. 480. It is well understood that a compromise involves not a surrender, but simply a waiver of the right or power.
1874. Green, Short Hist., ix. § 9. 685. It was necessary to bribe the two rival claimants to a waiver of their claims.
1908. Times, 27 Aug., 11/5. As to the point as to waiver, it had long been decided that every trifling breach of a covenant was not to be taken as a waiver.
b. Comb.: waiver clause, a clause in the prospectus of a joint-stock company, by which the subscribers are made to contract themselves out of the provision of the Companies Act requiring that the prospectus shall contain certain particulars respecting the contracts made with the promoters.
1894. Pall Mall Gaz., 5 Dec., 5/3.
1899. Westm. Gaz., 16 Oct., 10/2. It is becoming quite refreshing to find a prospectus without the objectionable waiver clause.
¶ c. The alleged use of the word as synonymous with WAIVERY appears to be unauthenticated.
1850. Ogilvie, whence in later Dicts.
2. In non-technical use: An act of waiving or dismissing from consideration. rare.
1883. E. C. Stedman, in Century Mag., XXVI. 940. There is something exasperating to serious minds in his placid waiver of things grievous or distasteful.
