n.
- Payment for labor or services to a worker, especially remuneration on an hourly, daily, or weekly basis or by the piece.
- wages Economics. The portion of the national product that represents the aggregate paid for all contributing labor and services as distinguished from the portion retained by management or reinvested in capital goods.
- A fitting return; a recompense. Often used in the plural with a singular or plural verb: the wages of sin.
To engage in (a war or campaign, for example).
[Middle English, from Old North French, of Germanic origin.]
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2007, 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2009. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
