Word of the Day Archive
Thursday May 22, 2008
cadge \KAJ\ , transitive verb:
1. To beg or obtain by begging; to sponge.
intransitive verb:
1. To beg; to sponge.
Another . . . complains of the hard work involved in cadging an invitation to a fancy dinner.
-- James N. Davidson, Courtesans & Fishcakes
Imagine the Tom his fellow students saw at the University of Iowa -- a slovenly, self-absorbed young man with a high, braying laugh, a tendency to cadge money and a habit of blushing -- and you can see why one remembered him as "a rather unpleasant little person" and another later said that he would have bet on "anyone but Tom" to become a successful playwright.
-- Benedict Nightingale, "The Bard of Failure", New York Times, November 19, 1995
John D. Rockefeller came to him regularly now to beg for dimes and to cadge free rides.
-- William H. Pritchard, "Yossarian Redux", New York Times, September 25, 1994
Cadge derives from Middle English cadgear, "a peddler, a huckster."
Dictionary.com Entry and Pronunciation for cadge
