Forms: 4 cagge(n, ? cache(n, (pa. pple. caget), (6 Palsgr. kadge), 6– cadge. [Derivation and original meaning uncertain: in some early passages it varies with cache, cacche CATCH, of which in branch I it may be a variant: cf. the pairs botch, bodge; grutch, grudge; smutch, smudge. Branch II may also be connected with catch or ONF. cacher in other senses; but it may be a distinct word: the whole subject is only one of more or less probable conjecture. Connection of ME. caggen with CAGE sb. is phonetically impossible.]
I. Early senses.
† 1. trans. ? To fasten, tie: cf. CADGEL v. (The early passages are obscure, and for one or other the senses drive, toss, shake, draw, have been proposed.) Obs.
c. 1325. E. E. Allit. P., A. 511. For a pene on a day & forth þay [labourers in the vineyard] gotz … Keruen & caggen & man [= maken] hit clos. Ibid., B. 1254. Þay wer cagged and kaȝt on capeles al bare.
a. 1400. Alexander, 1521. And þen he caggis [v.r. cachez] vp on cordis as curteyns it were.
c. 1400. Destr. Troy, 3703. Hit sundrit þere sailes & þere sad ropis; Cut of þere cables were caget to gedur.
1627. Drayton, Agincourt, 180. Whilst they are cadg’d contending whether can Conquer, the Asse some cry, some cry the man.
1875. Lanc. Gloss. (E. D. S.), Cadge, to tie or bind a thing.
† 2. To ‘bind’ the edge of a garment. Cf. CADGING vbl. sb. 1. Obs.
1530. Palsgr., 473/1. I cadge a garment, I set lystes in the lynyng to kepe the plyghtes in order. Ibid., 596/1. I kadge the plyghtes of a garment. Je dresse des plies dune lisiere. This kote is yll kadged: ce sayon a ses plies mal dressés dune lisiere.
† 3. (See quots.) ? To tie or knot. Still dial.
1703. Thoresby, Lett. to Ray (E. D. S.), To cadge, a term in making bone-lace.
II. To carry about, beg, etc.
† 4. trans. To carry about, as a pedlar does his pack, or a CADGER his stock-in-trade. Obs. exc. dial.
1607. Walkington, Opt. Glass, 79 b. Another Atlas that will cadge a whole world of iniuries without fainting.
1691. Ray, N. C. Wds. (E. D. S.), Cadge, to carry.
1718. Ramsay, Contn. Christ’s Kirk, III. xii. They gart him cadge this pack.
1788. Marshall, E. Yorksh., Gloss. (E. D. S.), Cadge, to carry.
1858. M. Porteous, Souter Johnny, 11. Weary naigs, that on the road Frae Carrick shore cadged monie a load.
1875. F. K. Robinson, Whitby Gloss. (E. D. S.), Cadge, to carry; or rather, as a public carrier collects the orders he has to take home for his customers.
† 5. To load or stuff the belly. dial.
1695. Kennett, Par. Antiq., Gloss. s.v. Cade, Hence … Cadge-belly or Kedge-belly is a full fat belly.
c. 1746. Collier (T. Bobbin), View Lanc. Dial., Wks. (1862), 68. While I’r busy cadging mey Wem.
1854. Bampton, Lanc. Gloss., Cadge, to stuff the belly.
6. intr. To go about as a cadger or pedlar, or on pretence of being one; to go about begging. dial. and slang.
1812. J. H. Vaux, Flash Dict., Cadge, to beg.
1846. Lytton, Lucretia, II. xii. ‘I be’s good for nothin’ now, but to cadge about the streets, and steal, and filch.’
1855. Whitby Gloss., To Cadge about, to go and seek from place to place, as a dinner-hunter.
1859. H. Kingsley, G. Hamlyn, xv. (D.). ‘I’ve got my living by casting fortins, and begging, and cadging, and such like.’
1875. Lanc. Gloss. (E. D. S.), Cadge, to beg; to skulk about a neighbourhood.
1879. Print. Trades Jrnl., XXIX. 32. Cadging for invitations to the Mansion House.
b. trans. To get by begging.
1848. E. Farmer, Scrap Book (ed. 6), 115. Let each ‘cadge’ a trifle.
1878. Black, Green Past., xi. 86. Where they can cadge a bit of food.
