cage
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /keɪd͡ʒ/
rhymes: -eɪdʒ
Forms: form: cages
Etymology: From Middle English cage, from Old French cage, from Latin cavea. Doublet of cadge and cavea and related to jail.
Senses: examples: text: We keep a bird in a cage.
text: The tigers are in a cage to protect the public.
text: The most dangerous prisoners are locked away in a cage.
text: For his father had / never a house but the cage.
ref: c. 1596–1599 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Second Part of Henry the Fourth, […]. Epilogue.”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene ii], lines 48–49:
text: Stone walls do not a prison make, / Nor iron bars a cage.
ref: 1642, Richard Lovelace, To Althea, from Prison, stanza 4, lines 1–2:
glosses: An enclosure made of bars, normally to hold animals.
glosses: The passenger compartment of a lift.
qualifier: field hockey or ice hockey; water polo; field hockey or ice hockey; water polo
glosses: The goal.
glosses: An automobile.
examples: text: Schwartz examines with dignity and tenderness the battles within and without of […] families, created and biological, and the cages and freedom they can provide.
ref: 1989 December 17, Nan Donald, “Broken Hearts, Messed Up Families, And New Beginnings”, in Gay Community News, volume 17, number 23, page 9:
text: My body is a cage / That keeps me from dancing with the one I love / But my mind holds the key
ref: 2007, Jeremy Gara, Régine Chassagne, “My Body Is a Cage”, in Neon Bible, performed by Arcade Fire:
glosses: Something that hinders freedom.
examples: text: The 'out of the closet' lesbians and gay men here in the Iowa Cages are harassed and discriminated daily by oppressive pigs, believe me, I know, as a lesbian I've experienced it first hand and seen my fellow lesbian and gay friends oppressed to where I'm ready to explode.
ref: 1985 December 14, Robyn Shawnee Jackson, “Kouuntry And Kitten”, in Gay Community News, volume 13, number 22, page 4:
glosses: A prison or prison cell.
topics: athletics
hobbies
lifestyle
sports
glosses: The area from which competitors throw a discus or hammer.
examples: text: Cage, in carpentry, is an outer work of timber inclosing another within it. Thus the cage of a stair is the wooden inclosure that encircles it.
ref: 1842, Joseph Gwilt, “A Glossary of Terms Used by Architects”, in An Encyclopædia of Architecture, Historical, Theoretical, and Practical, 2nd edition, London: Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans, published 1851, page 941:
glosses: An outer framework of timber, enclosing something within it.
topics: engineering
natural-sciences
physical-sciences
glosses: A skeleton frame to limit the motion of a loose piece, such as a ball valve.
glosses: A wirework strainer, used in connection with pumps and pipes.
topics: business
mining
glosses: The drum on which the rope is wound in a hoisting whim.
topics: ball-games
baseball
games
hobbies
ice-hockey
lifestyle
skating
sports
glosses: The protective wire mask at the front of a helmet.
topics: graph-theory
mathematics
sciences
glosses: A regular graph that has as few vertices as possible for its girth.
glosses: In killer sudoku puzzles, an irregularly-shaped group of cells that must contain a set of unique digits adding up to a certain total, in addition to the usual constraints of sudoku.
Derived terms: baby cage
battery cage
bear cage
bird-cage
birdcage
bone-cage
bottle cage
cage ball
cagebelle
cagebird
cage bird
cage box
cage boxer
cage boxing
cage bra
cage compound
cage cup
cage dance
cage dancer
cage diving
cage effect
cage fight
cage fighter
cage fighting
cage-free
cageful
cage gear
Cage Green
cage home
cageless
cagelike
cageling
cage match
cagemate
cager
cage stage
cagewash
cagework
cagey
chastity cage
cock cage
cope cage
crow cage
decage
discage
encage
Faraday cage
fish cage
gilded cage
goal cage
homecage
incage
iron cage
microcage
nanocage
orientation cage
penis cage
photocage
Pombaline cage
queen-cage
rib cage
roll cage
safety cage
squat cage
squirrel cage
squirrel-cage motor
squirrel's cage
steel cage match
thoracic cage
tiger cage