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The Collaborative International Dictionary
Board wages

Wage \Wage\, n. [OF. wage, gage, guarantee, engagement. See Wage, v. t. ]

  1. That which is staked or ventured; that for which one incurs risk or danger; prize; gage. [Obs.] ``That warlike wage.''
    --Spenser.

  2. That for which one labors; meed; reward; stipulated payment for service performed; hire; pay; compensation; -- at present generally used in the plural. See Wages. ``My day's wage.''
    --Sir W. Scott. ``At least I earned my wage.''
    --Thackeray. ``Pay them a wage in advance.''
    --J. Morley. ``The wages of virtue.''
    --Tennyson.

    By Tom Thumb, a fairy page, He sent it, and doth him engage, By promise of a mighty wage, It secretly to carry.
    --Drayton.

    Our praises are our wages.
    --Shak.

    Existing legislation on the subject of wages.
    --Encyc. Brit.

    Note: Wage is used adjectively and as the first part of compounds which are usually self-explaining; as, wage worker, or wage-worker; wage-earner, etc.

    Board wages. See under 1st Board.

    Syn: Hire; reward; stipend; salary; allowance; pay; compensation; remuneration; fruit.

Board wages

Board \Board\ (b[=o]rd), n. [OE. bord, AS. bord board, shipboard; akin to bred plank, Icel. bor[eth] board, side of a ship, Goth. f[=o]tu-baurd footstool, D. bord board, G. brett, bort. See def. 8. [root]92.]

  1. A piece of timber sawed thin, and of considerable length and breadth as compared with the thickness, -- used for building, etc.

    Note: When sawed thick, as over one and a half or two inches, it is usually called a plank.

  2. A table to put food upon.

    Note: The term board answers to the modern table, but it was often movable, and placed on trestles.
    --Halliwell.

    Fruit of all kinds . . . She gathers, tribute large, and on the board Heaps with unsparing hand.
    --Milton.

  3. Hence: What is served on a table as food; stated meals; provision; entertainment; -- usually as furnished for pay; as, to work for one's board; the price of board.

  4. A table at which a council or court is held. Hence: A council, convened for business, or any authorized assembly or meeting, public or private; a number of persons appointed or elected to sit in council for the management or direction of some public or private business or trust; as, the Board of Admiralty; a board of trade; a board of directors, trustees, commissioners, etc.

    Both better acquainted with affairs than any other who sat then at that board.
    --Clarendon.

    We may judge from their letters to the board.
    --Porteus.

  5. A square or oblong piece of thin wood or other material used for some special purpose, as, a molding board; a board or surface painted or arranged for a game; as, a chessboard; a backgammon board.

  6. Paper made thick and stiff like a board, for book covers, etc.; pasteboard; as, to bind a book in boards.

  7. pl. The stage in a theater; as, to go upon the boards, to enter upon the theatrical profession.

  8. [In this use originally perh. a different word meaning border, margin; cf. D. boord, G. bord, shipboard, and G. borte trimming; also F. bord (fr. G.) the side of a ship. Cf. Border.] The border or side of anything. (Naut.)

    1. The side of a ship. ``Now board to board the rival vessels row.''
      --Dryden. See On board, below.

    2. The stretch which a ship makes in one tack. Note: Board is much used adjectively or as the last part of a compound; as, fir board, clapboard, floor board, shipboard, sideboard, ironing board, chessboard, cardboard, pasteboard, seaboard; board measure. The American Board, a shortened form of ``The American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions'' (the foreign missionary society of the American Congregational churches). Bed and board. See under Bed. Board and board (Naut.), side by side. Board of control, six privy councilors formerly appointed to superintend the affairs of the British East Indies. --Stormonth. Board rule, a figured scale for finding without calculation the number of square feet in a board. --Haldeman. Board of trade, in England, a committee of the privy council appointed to superintend matters relating to trade. In the United States, a body of men appointed for the advancement and protection of their business interests; a chamber of commerce. Board wages.

      1. Food and lodging supplied as compensation for services; as, to work hard, and get only board wages.

      2. Money wages which are barely sufficient to buy food and lodging.

    3. A separate or special allowance of wages for the procurement of food, or food and lodging. --Dryden. By the board, over the board, or side. ``The mast went by the board.'' --Totten. Hence (Fig.), To go by the board, to suffer complete destruction or overthrow. To enter on the boards, to have one's name inscribed on a board or tablet in a college as a student. [Cambridge, England.] ``Having been entered on the boards of Trinity college.'' --Hallam. To make a good board (Naut.), to sail in a straight line when close-hauled; to lose little to leeward. To make short boards, to tack frequently. On board.

      1. On shipboard; in a ship or a boat; on board of; as, I came on board early; to be on board ship.

      2. In or into a railway car or train. [Colloq. U. S.]

        Returning board, a board empowered to canvass and make an official statement of the votes cast at an election.

Usage examples of "board wages".

With the utmost regard for the family, for instance (for I dine with them twice or thrice in the season), I cannot but own that the appearance of the Jenkinses in the Park, in the large barouche with the grenadier-footmen, will surprise and mystify me to my dying day: for though I know the equipage is only jobbed, and all the Jenkins people are on board wages, yet those three men and the carriage must represent an expense of six hundred a-year at the very least—.

Celeste had been left in London on board wages, like most of the servants.

Watson, their excellent housekeeper, in charge of shutting up the house and putting the servants on board wages.

There was always a skeleton staff at Chalfont House, on board wages when the family was not in residence.