What does 'waiver' means?
While reading a news article regarding fake drugs, the following sentence came into my view.

While the F.D.A. does not prosecute individual consumers whose purchases present no threat to themselves or the public and grant some waiver to those buying less than three months' supply of a drug from abroad, most are still technically considered criminals.

In above sentence, I failed to understand what 'waiver' means. Grant some waiver to those? When I googled the definition of it, it is an act or instance of waiving a right or claim. ( And waive means give up or relinquish. )

Can anyone give me an alternative word instead of waiver? Maybe an incentive?

And I felt like I had seen the word 'waiver' in my college tuition fee. Like my tuition fee is waived or something like that. Am I correct?

Question

What does 'waiver' means?
While reading a news article regarding fake drugs, the following sentence came into my view.

While the F.D.A. does not prosecute individual consumers whose purchases present no threat to themselves or the public and grant some waiver to those buying less than three months' supply of a drug from abroad, most are still technically considered criminals.

In above sentence, I failed to understand what 'waiver' means. Grant some waiver to those? When I googled the definition of it, it is an act or instance of waiving a right or claim. ( And waive means give up or relinquish. )

Can anyone give me an alternative word instead of waiver? Maybe an incentive?

And I felt like I had seen the word 'waiver' in my college tuition fee. Like my tuition fee is waived or something like that. Am I correct?

Answer

A waiver is when a person, government, or organization agrees to give up a right or says that people do not have to obey a particular rule or law.

I suggest you use the Collins Dictionary because I find it useful.

The link is here:

https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/

Answer

You can interpret it as "waving something away".

Such as waving your college fee away because of some reason, or in your example waving someone away who bought an unsubstantial amount of drugs because it is not really worth it to pursue that person.

At least that is a good way to remember the meaning of the word :)

Answer

Defining a word by using the very word you are trying to define in a sentence is stupid. I don’t know what google source you found but don’t use them anymore.

Waiving something is just giving someone a “pass” so to speak to do something they otherwise wouldn’t be able to, maybe without paying a price (whatever that might be). A tuition waiver at a university means you aren’t being charged tuition. That’s all it is. In a case where there might be criminal penalties attached to something, a waiver is just being given immunity from prosecution for having done something.

Answer

Edit: I posted my answer below.