Waives

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. Voluntarily gives up a right or claim ; moves the hand side to side to attract attention or greet someone
2. Chooses to forgo a legal or official entitlement ; signals with a hand motion to convey greeting or acknowledgement
3. Foregoes a privilege or demand intentionally ; uses a waving motion of the hand to communicate or beckon

Etymology: "Waives" is the third-person singular form of "waive", so it carries two unrelated histories that happen to share a spelling. The sense of giving up a right or claim descends from Anglo-Norman "weyver", meaning "to abandon, allow to become a waif", a word tied to the legal notion of unclaimed goods and stray property. English borrowed the idea through Middle English "weyven", meaning "to avoid, renounce", so the core meaning is closer to letting something go than to any gesture. The hand-waving sense is a different word altogether. It comes from Middle English "weyven", meaning "to wave, waver", which traces back to Old Norse "veifa", "to wave, swing", and further to a Proto-Germanic root. Its Scandinavian ancestry means the beckoning gesture and the legal renunciation were never linked, and the two senses merged only in spelling.

Synonyms: abandon, relinquish

Antonyms: claim, assert