Part 265

Wa"ger (?), n. -- Wagering, 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.

Wa"ges (?), n. pl. (Theoretical Economics) The share of the annual product or national dividend which goes as a reward to labor, as distinct from the remuneration received by capital in its various forms. This economic or technical sense of the word wages is broader than the current sense, and includes not only amounts actually paid to laborers, but the remuneration obtained by those who sell the products of their own work, and the wages of superintendence or management, which are earned by skill in directing the work of others.

Wag"gle (?), n. A waggling or wagging; specif. (Golf), the preliminary swinging of the club head back and forth over the ball in the line of the proposed stroke.

Wag*ne"ri*an (?), a. Of, pertaining to, or resembling the style of, Richard Wagner, the German musical composer.

Wa*hoo" (?), n. Any of various American trees or shrubs; specif.: (a) A certain shrub (Evonymus atropurpureus) having purple capsules which in dehiscence expose the scarlet-ariled seeds; -- called also burning bush. (b) Cascara buckthorn. (c) Basswood.

Wa*hoo", n. A dark blue scombroid food fish (Acanthocibium solandri or petus) of Florida and the West Indies.

Wait"-a-bit`, n. Any of several plants bearing thorns or stiff hooked appendages, which catch and tear the clothing, as: (a) The greenbrier. (b) Any of various species of hawthorn. (c) In South Africa, one of numerous acacias and mimosas. (d) The grapple plant. (e) The prickly ash.

Wait"-a-while`, n. (a) One of the Australian wattle trees (Acacia colletioides), so called from the impenetrability of the thicket which it makes. (b) = Wait-a-bit.

||Wai Wu Pu (?). [Chinese wai foreign + wu affairs + pu office.] The Department of Foreign Affairs in the Chinese government.

The Tsung-li Yamen, or Foreign Office, created by a decree of January 19, 1861, was in July, 1902, superseded by the formation of a new Foreign Office called the Wai Wu Pu, . . . with precedence before all other boards.

J. Scott Keltie.

Wakf (wkf), n. [Ar. waqf.] (Moham. Law) The granting or dedication of property in trust for a pious purpose, that is, to some object that tends to the good of mankind, as to support a mosque or caravansary, to provide for support of one's family, kin, or neighbors, to benefit some particular person or persons and afterward the poor, etc.; also, the trust so created, or the property in trust.

Wa"kif (wä"kf), n. [Ar. wqif.] (Moham. Law) The person creating a wakf.

Wal"er (?), n. [From Wales, i.e., New South Wales.] A horse imported from New South Wales; also, any Australian horse. [Colloq.] Kipling.

The term originated in India, whither many horses are exported from Australia (mostly from New South Wales), especially for the use of cavalry.

Walk (?), n. 1. In coffee, coconut, and other plantations, the space between them.

2. (Sporting) (a) A place for keeping and training puppies. (b) An inclosed area of some extent to which a gamecock is confined to prepare him for fighting.

Walk, v. t. 1. (Sporting) To put or keep (a puppy) in a walk; to train (puppies) in a walk.

2. To move in a manner likened to walking. [Colloq.]

She walked a spinning wheel into the house, making it use first one and then the other of its own spindling legs to achieve progression rather than lifting it by main force.

C. E. Craddock.

To walk one's chalks, to make off; take French leave.

Wal*la"chi*an (?), a. [Also Walachian, Wallach, Wallack, Vlach, etc.] Of or pertaining to Wallachia, a former principality, now part of the kingdom, of Roumania. -- n. An inhabitant of Wallachia; also, the language of the Wallachians; Roumanian.

Wal"lack (?), a. & n. See Wallachian.

Wall"flow`er, n. (Bot.) In Australia, the desert poison bush (Gastrolobium grandiflorum); -- called also native wallflower.

Wal"low (?), n. 1. Act of wallowing.

2. A place to which an animal comes to wallow; also, the depression in the ground made by its wallowing; as, a buffalo wallow.

Wall Street. A street towards the southern end of the borough of Manhattan, New York City, extending from Broadway to the East River; -- so called from the old wall which extended along it when the city belonged to the Dutch. It is the chief financial center of the United States, hence the name is often used for the money market and the financial interests of the country.