Cadge

//kæd͡ʒ// noun, verb, slang

noun, verb, slang ·Moderate ·High school level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A circular frame on which cadgers carry hawks for sale.
Verb
  1. 1
    To tie, fasten. obsolete, transitive
  2. 2
    To carry hawks and other birds of prey.

    "For quotations using this term, see Citations:cadge."

  3. 3
    obtain or seek to obtain by cadging or wheedling wordnet
  4. 4
    To beg. Geordie

    "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"

  5. 5
    To carry, as a burden. Scotland, UK, dialectal

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

Show 3 more definitions
  1. 6
    ask for and get free; be a parasite wordnet
  2. 7
    To obtain something by wit or guile; to convince people to do something they might not normally do. British, US, slang

    "Are ye gannin te cadge a lift of yoer fatha?"

  3. 8
    To hawk or peddle, as fish, poultry, etc. Scotland, UK, dialectal

Synonyms

All synonyms
bummoochscroungespongebegblag

Example

More examples

"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"

Etymology

Etymology 1

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

Etymology 2

Likely a corruption of cage.

Related phrases

on the cadge

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.