[f. CAGE sb. + WORK sb.]
1. Open work like the bars of a cage; also fig.
1625. Gill, Sacr. Philos., II. 173. If this foundation of the mixture of the two natures in Christ bee taken away, all the Cage-worke of the Theodosians, that the Mediatour is mortall, and of the Armenians, that hee could not suffer, must needes bee rotten and unable to stand.
1756. C. Lucas, Ess. Waters, II. 135. It [Malmendy] consists of about a thousand houses, mostly of cage-work.
† 2. Naut. (see quots.) Obs.
a. 1618. Raleigh, Roy. Navy, 15. But men of better sort … would be glad to find more steadinesse and lesse tottering Cadge worke.
1708. Kersey, Cage-work, the uppermost carved Works of a Ship’s Hull.
1721–1800. in Bailey.
1855. Kingsley, Westw. Ho! II. xii. 322 (D.). The English fashion was to heighten the ship…, and also by stockades (‘close-fights and cage-works’) on the poop and forecastle, thus giving to the men a shelter.
1867. Smyth, Sailor’s Word-bk., Cage-wrock, an old term for a ship’s upper works.
