When do you wave and when do you waive?

Judy Vorfeld

TO WAIVE
In the busi­ness and sports worlds, “waive” is used quite often. Here are some meanings:

1. To give up a claim to something
2. To hold back from insist­ing on/enforcing a rule, penalty, requirement
3. To can­cel or post­pone (some­times temporarily)

A few syn­onyms: sac­ri­fice, sur­ren­der, give up, abdi­cate, yield, forgo, renounce, abandon

TO WAVE

1. To move freely back and forth or up and down in the air (flags, branches in the wind)
2. To make a sig­nal with a move­ment of the hand/object held in the hand (she waved from her limo)
3. To curl hair … make wavy