cadge

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /kæd͡ʒ/

  • Audio (Southern England):

    (file)

• Rhymes: -ædʒ

Etymology 1

From Middle English caggen (“to tie, fasten, bind”), probably from Old Norse. Compare Old Norse kǫgurr (“quilt”), kǫgurbarn (“swaddled child”).

Verb

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

1. (transitive, obsolete) To tie, fasten.
2. (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

3. (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 […]

Derived terms

• cadger
• codger
• on the cadge

Translations

to beg

• Bulgarian: прося (bg) (prosja)
• Czech: žebrat (cs) impf, somrovat impf, loudit impf
• German: schnorren (de)
• Hungarian: kunyerál (hu), tarhál (hu), lejmol (hu)
• Māori: pati, whakapati, pīnono, kaimātai

slang: to obtain something by wit or guile

• Czech: vyloudit pf
• Dutch: ritselen (nl)
• Hungarian: legombol (hu), szerez (hu)
• Māori: rutu, pīnono, pīnene
• Polish: wycyganiać impf, wycyganić (pl) pf, wykusić pf, wyłudzać (pl) impf, wyłudzić (pl) pf
• Russian: выманить (ru) pf (vymanitʹ)
• Spanish: mendigar (es), suplicar (es), gorronear (es), mangonear (es)

Etymology 2

Likely a corruption of cage.

Noun

cadge (plural cadges)

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

Translations

falconry: a circular frame on which cadgers carry hawks for sale

Verb

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

1. To carry hawks and other birds of prey.
   • For quotations using this term, see Citations:cadge.
2. (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.

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

Translations

to carry hawks

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

Translations to be checked

• Bulgarian: ^{(please verify)} прося (bg) (prosja)

References

• Frank Graham, editor (1987), “CADGE”, in The New Geordie Dictionary, Rothbury, Northumberland: Butler Publishing, →ISBN.
• Michael Quinion (January 15, 2005), “Cadge”, in World Wide Words.

Anagrams

• CAGED, caged