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Wager vs Stakes - What's the difference?

wager | stakes |

As nouns the difference between wager and stakes

is that wager is something deposited, laid, or hazarded on the event of a contest or an unsettled question; a bet; a stake; a pledge while stakes is plural of lang=en.

As verbs the difference between wager and stakes

is that wager is to bet something; to put it up as collateral while stakes is third-person singular of stake.

wager

English

(Webster 1913)

Etymology 1

From (etyl) wageure'', from ''wagier'' "to pledge" (compare Old French guagier, whence modern French gager). See also ''wage .

Noun

(wikipedia wager) (en noun)
  • Something deposited, laid, or hazarded on the event of a contest or an unsettled question; a bet; a stake; a pledge.
  • * Sir W. Temple
  • Besides these Plates, the Wagers may be as the Persons please among themselves, but the Horses must be evidenced by good Testimonies to have been bred in Ireland.
  • * Bentley
  • If any atheist can stake his soul for a wager against such an inexhaustible disproportion, let him never hereafter accuse others of credulity.
  • (legal) A contract by which two parties or more agree that a certain sum of money, or other thing, shall be paid or delivered to one of them, on the happening or not happening of an uncertain event.
  • (Bouvier)
  • That on which bets are laid; the subject of a bet.
  • Verb

    (en verb)
  • To bet something; to put it up as collateral
  • I'd wager my boots on it.
  • (figuratively) To daresay.
  • I'll wager that Johnson knows something about all this.
    Synonyms
    * (to daresay) lay odds

    Etymology 2

    From the verb, to wage + .

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • Agent noun of wage; one who wages.
  • * 1912 , Pocumtack Valley Memorial Association, History and Proceedings of the Pocumtuck Valley Memorial Association , p. 65:
  • They were wagers of warfare against the wilderness and the Indians, and founders of families and towns.
  • * 1957 , Elsa Maxwell, How to Do It; Or, The Lively Art of Entertaining , p. 7:
  • Hatshepsut was no wager of wars, no bloodstained conqueror.
    English agent nouns

    stakes

    English

    Noun

    (head)
  • *{{quote-news, year=2012
  • , date=May 9 , author=John Percy , title=Birmingham City 2 Blackpool 2 (2-3 on agg): match report , work=the Telegraph citation , page= , passage=Holloway has unfinished business in the Premier League after relegation last year and he will make a swift return if he can overcome West Ham a week on Saturday. Sam Allardyce, the West Ham manager, will be acutely aware that when the stakes are high, Blackpool are simply formidable.}}

    Verb

    (head)
  • (stake)
  • Anagrams

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