cadge

English

Etymology

Possibly a corruption of cage, from Old French.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /kæd͡ʒ/

  • Audio (Southern England)

    (file)

• Rhymes: -ædʒ

Noun

cadge (plural cadges)

1. (falconry) A circular frame on which cadgers carry hawks for sale.

Translations

Verb

cadge (third-person singular simple present cadges, present participle cadging or cadgin, simple past and past participle cadged)

1. (Geordie) To beg.
   • 1839, Glasgow Society, Report for Repressing Juvenile Delinquency:

     Cadging on the fly is a profitable occupation in the vicinity of bathing places, and large towns. A person of this description frequently gets many shillings in the course of the day

2. (US, British, slang) To obtain something by wit or guile; to convince people to do something they might not normally do.

   Synonyms: scrounge, bum; see also Thesaurus:scrounge

   Are ye gannin te cadge a lift of yoer fatha?

   • 1956, James Baldwin, Giovanni’s Room, Penguin, published 2001, Part One, Chapter 2:

     They moved about the bar incessantly, cadging cigarettes and drinks, with something behind their eyes at once terribly vulnerable and terribly hard.

   • 1960, Lionel Bart, “Food, Glorious Food,” song from the musical Oliver!

     There’s not a crust, not a crumb can we find,

     can we beg, can we borrow, or cadge

3. To carry hawks and other birds of prey.
   • For quotations using this term, see Citations:cadge.
4. (UK, Scotland, dialect) To carry, as a burden.
   • 1607, Thomas Walkington, The Optick Glasse of Humors:

     Another Atlas that will cadge a whole world of iniuries without fainting.

5. (UK, Scotland, dialect) To hawk or peddle, as fish, poultry, etc.

Derived terms

Translations

References

• Frank Graham (1987) The New Geordie Dictionary, →ISBN
• Michael Quinion (January 15, 2005) “Cadge”, in World Wide Words.

Anagrams

• CAGED, caged