Other forms: waived, waiving, waives
To waive is to give up a right or a claim voluntarily. Waive the fee, waive your rights, waive the requirement.
It is a legal act rather than a favour, though it often looks like one: waiving a fee, waiving notice, waiving a deadline. A waiver is the document recording it, and signing one before an activity is how risk is passed to the participant. Note that waive and wave are homophones and constantly confused in writing; and that waiving a right is deliberate, while losing it by inaction is a different thing.
1verbwaiveTo give up a right or a claim voluntarily.
“The bank agreed to waive the fee because the mistake was theirs.”
waive is a giving up of a right.
Anglo-Norman weyver meant to abandon, from waif, an ownerless thing. A waif was originally lost property, and to waive was to leave something ownerless.
Old French
waif — waif
Anglo-Norman
weyver — to abandon, allow to become a waif
Middle English
weyven — to avoid, renounce
English, today
waive
Built from
From Middle English weyven (“to avoid, renounce”), from Anglo-Norman weyver (“to abandon, allow to become a waif”), from Old French waif (“waif”), from gaiver (“to abandon”), ultimately of Scandinavian/gmq - origin; see weyver.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA