noun

• (often in plural) An amount of money paid to a worker for a specified quantity of work, usually calculated on an hourly basis and expressed in an amount of money per hour.
  "Before her promotion, her wages were 20% less."

verb

• (transitive, obsolete) To wager, bet.
  "My life I never held but as a pawn / To wage against thine enemies"
• (transitive, obsolete) To expose oneself to, as a risk; to incur, as a danger; to venture; to hazard.
  "I fear the power of Percy is too weak / To wage an instant trial with the King."
• (transitive, obsolete) To employ for wages; to hire.
  "Thenne said Arthur I wille goo with yow / Nay said the kynges ye shalle not at this tyme / for ye haue moche to doo yet in these landes / therfore we wille departe / and with the grete goodes that we haue goten in these landes by youre yeftes we shalle wage good knyghtes & withstande the kynge Claudas malyce"
• (transitive) To conduct or carry out (a war or other contest).
  "pond'ring which of all his Sons was fit / To Reign, and wage immortal War with Wit"