1
: the act of intentionally relinquishing or abandoning a known right, claim, or privilege
also
: the legal instrument evidencing such an act
2
: the act of a club's waiving the right to claim a professional ball player who is being removed from another club's roster
—often used in the phrase on waivers denoting the process by which a player to be removed from a roster is made available to other clubs
Examples of waiver in a Sentence
a criminal defendant's waiver of a jury trial
The college got a special waiver from the town to exceed the building height limit.
He signed an insurance waiver before surgery.
Recent Examples on the Web
Forwards Jan Jenik, Hayden Hodgson, Lycksell and Kaliyev; defenceman Lassi Thomson; and goalie Mads Sogaard all cleared waivers Monday and will join Belleville alongside prospect Stephen Halliday.
—
Julian McKenzie, New York Times, 7 Oct. 2025
In a letter to Muhammad Aurangzeb, the federal finance minister, last month, the organization called for interest-free government loans, electricity bill waivers, fertilizer subsidies and sales tax exemptions on domestic cotton to aid with recovery.
—Jasmin Malik Chua, Sourcing Journal, 7 Oct. 2025
But the 29-year-old, who the O's claimed off waivers last summer from the Miami Marlins, simply couldn't get anything going with the bat.
—Jackson Roberts, MSNBC Newsweek, 7 Oct. 2025
For a time, staff at Weill Cornell Medicine were having patients sign waivers pledging to pay out of pocket if insurers wouldn’t cover COVID shots, Adam Stracher, the system’s chief medical officer, told me.
—Katherine J. Wu, The Atlantic, 3 Oct. 2025
See All Example Sentences for waiver
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to
show current usage.
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Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors.
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Julian McKenzie, New York Times, 7 Oct. 2025
In a letter to Muhammad Aurangzeb, the federal finance minister, last month, the organization called for interest-free government loans, electricity bill waivers, fertilizer subsidies and sales tax exemptions on domestic cotton to aid with recovery.
—Jasmin Malik Chua, Sourcing Journal, 7 Oct. 2025
But the 29-year-old, who the O's claimed off waivers last summer from the Miami Marlins, simply couldn't get anything going with the bat.
—Jackson Roberts, MSNBC Newsweek, 7 Oct. 2025
For a time, staff at Weill Cornell Medicine were having patients sign waivers pledging to pay out of pocket if insurers wouldn’t cover COVID shots, Adam Stracher, the system’s chief medical officer, told me.
—Katherine J. Wu, The Atlantic, 3 Oct. 2025
See All Example Sentences for waiver
Cite this Entry
“Waiver.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/waiver. Accessed 10 Oct. 2025.
Copy CitationKids Definition
waiver
noun
waiv·er
ˈwā-vər 
1
: the act of intentionally giving up a right, claim, or privilege
2
: a document containing a declaration of a waiver
Legal Definition
waiver
noun
waiv·er
ˈwā-vər
: the act of intentionally or knowingly relinquishing or abandoning a known right, claim, or privilege
also
: the legal instrument evidencing such an act compare estoppel, forfeiture
Note: Acts or statements made while forming or carrying out a contract may constitute a waiver and prevent a party from enforcing a contractual right (as when an insurer is barred from disclaiming liability because of facts known to it when it issued the insurance policy). Varying standards are applied by courts to determine if there has been a waiver of various constitutional rights (such as the right to counsel) in criminal cases.
Etymology
Anglo-French, from waiver to waive
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