Emily Dickinson Lexicon

WA'GER, n.

1. Something deposited, laid or hazarded on the event of a contest or some unsettled question; a bet. Besides these plates for horse-races, the wagers may be as the persons please. – Temple. If any atheist can stake his soul for a wager against such an inexhaustible disproportion … – Bentley.
2. Subject on which bets are laid. – Sidney.
3. In law, an offer to make oath of innocence or non-indebtedness; or the act of making oath, together with the oaths of eleven compurgators, to fortify the defendant's oath. Wager of battle, is when the tenant in a writ of right, offers to prove his right by the body of his champion, and throwing down his glove as a gage or pledge, thus wages or stipulates battle with the champion of the demandant, who by taking up the glove, accepts the challenge. The champions, armed with batons, enter the list, and taking each other by the hand, each swears to the justice of the cause of the party for whom he appears; they then fight till the stars appear, and if the champion of the tenant can defend himself till that time, his cause prevails. – Blackstone.