Also 5 kage, 6 kaig, cadge. [a. F. cage (= It. gaggia):—late L. *cavja:—L. cavea hollow, cavity, dungeon, cell, cage, f. cav-us hollow. The phonetic development was as in rage, sage:—L. rabies, *sapius.]
I. Generally and non-technically.
1. A box or place of confinement for birds and other animals (or, in barbarous times, for human beings), made wholly or partly of wire, or with bars of metal or wood, so as to admit air and light, while preventing the creature’s escape.
a. 1225. Ancr. R., 102. Ase untowe brid ine cage.
c. 1386. Chaucer, Squieres T., 611. Briddes … that men in cages fede.
a. 1528. Skelton, P. Sparowe, 324. Was neuer byrde in cage More gentle of corage.
1547. Boorde, Introd. Knowl., xxxii. 204. They do kepe in a kaig in the churche a white cocke and a hen.
1581. J. Bell, Haddon’s Answ. Osor., 500. Lyke a common skold in a Cage.
1649. Lovelace, To Althea, 156. Stone walls do not a prison make Nor iron bars a cage.
1673. R. Head, Canting Acad., 74. As nimble as a Squirrel in a Bell-Cage.
1727. Swift, Gulliver, II. viii. 162. Kept in cages like tame Canary birds.
1727. Tindal, trans. Rapin’s Hist. Eng. (1757), III. 319. The Countess of Buquhan … was put into a wooden cage, and placed as a ridiculous sight to the people on the walls of Berwick castle.
1875. Buckland, Log-Bk., 198. So we make water cages for our fish.
† 2. ‘A prison for petty malefactors’ (J.); a lock-up. Obs.
c. 1500. Lancelot, 2767. As cowart thus schamfully to ly Excludit in to cage frome chewalry.
1593. Shaks., 2 Hen. VI., IV. ii. 56. His Father had neuer a house but the Cage.
c. 1600. Distr. Emperor, V. iii. in O. Pl. (1884), III. 248. May constables to cadges styll comend theym.
1703. Maundrell, Journ. Jerus. (1732), 129. A small Timber Structure resembling the Cage of a Country Burrough.
1836–7. Dickens, Sk. Boz (1850), 248/1. It has … a market-place—a cage—an assembly-room.
1839. Thackeray, Fatal Boots, x. I found myself in a cage in Cursitor Street.
3. fig. That which confines or imprisons.
c. 1300. K. Alis., 5011. Than she gooth to dethes cage.
c. 1450. Capgrave, S. Katherine, 351. Thus was thy lyf, lady, kepte in cage.
1649. G. Daniel, Trinarch., Hen. V., ccxxxi. Soules enfranchis’d, from the torne-vp Cage Of flesh.
1730. Beveridge, Priv. Th., I. 77. The Cage of Flesh, Wherein the Soul is penned up.
1854. Brewster, More Worlds, iv. 72. Is it necessary that an immortal soul should be united to a skeleton of bone, or imprisoned in a cage of cartilage and of skin?
4. Anything resembling a cage in structure or purpose. † b. A scaffold, elevated stage or seat.
a. 1400. Cov. Myst. (1841), 162. I am kynge knowyn in kage. Ibid., 166. Heyl, be thou kynge in kage full hye.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 57/2. Cage, catasta.
1553. Eden, Treat. New Ind. (Arb.), 15. Upon the packsaddels [of an elephant], they haue on euery side a little house, or towre, or cage (if you list so to call it) made of wood.
1592. Shaks., Rom. & Jul., II. iii. 7. I must vpfill this Osier Cage of ours, With balefull weedes, and precious Iuiced flowers.
1884. Western Daily Press, 28 Nov., 7/4. By the term crinolette, we by no means allude to the preposterously ugly and attached ‘cage’ which was formerly tied round the waist.
1887. Pall Mall Gaz, 25 March, 5/1. The ludicrous and offensive object known as the ‘cage’ in the Ladies’ Gallery of the House of Commons remained merely because it was nobody’s business to agitate for its removal.
c. = CAGE-WORK 2.
1555. Eden, Decades W. Ind., III. V. (Arb.), 158. Defended by the cages or pauisses of the shyppes and their targettes.
II. In various technical uses.
5. Mining. a. ‘A frame with one or more platforms for cars, used in hoisting in a vertical shaft.’
1851. J. Hedley, Coal Mines, 124. Tubs full or empty in the cage.
1855. Leisure Hour, 474/1. We must step into this ‘cage,’ which, you perceive, is a kind of vertical railway carriage.
1879. Jefferies, Wild Life in S. Co., 249. The rabbit has … no ‘cage’ with which to haul up the sand he has moved.
1883. Chamb. Jrnl., 17 Nov., 733/1. The ‘cage,’ an iron structure open at two sides,… fit in two wooden ‘guides’ … fixed to the sides of the shaft.
b. The barrel of a whim on which the rope is wound; a drum.
1854. Whitney, Metal. Wealth U. S., 73. The cage, or drum on which the rope is wound.
1856. W. Bainbridge, Law Mines, 654. Cage … also, the barrel for a whim-pipe.
6. A confining framework of various kinds.
a. Carpentry (see quot.).
1753. Chambers, Cycl. Supp., Cage, in carpentry, signifies an outer work of timber, enclosing another within it. In this sense we say, the cage of a windmill. The cage of a stair-case denotes the wooden sides or walls which enclose it.
1876. Gwilt, Archit., Gloss.
b. The framework in which a peal of bells is hung.
c. 1630. Risdon, Surv. Devon, § 107 (1811), 108. A cage of four small broken bells.
1872. Ellacombe, Bells of Ch., ix. 309. At East Bergholt, Suffolk, there is a ring of five heavy bells … in a cage in the churchyard.
c. A framework confining a ball-valve within a certain range of motion.
d. A wire guard over the mouth of a pipe, etc., to allow the passage of liquids and prevent that of solids.
e. A cup with a glass bottom and cover, to hold a drop of water containing organisms for microscopic examination.
1839. Penny Cycl., XV. 181/1. s.v. Microscope, Capillary cages for containing animalculæ in water.
7. A vessel formed of iron hoops or bars, to contain burning combustibles (see quot. 1867).
1837. M. Donovan, Dom. Econ., II. 171. Those who fish for them [anchovies] go out in boats with a cage of burning charcoal fastened to each boat.
1867. Smyth, Sailor’s Word-bk., Cage, an iron cage formed of hoops on the top of a pole, and filled with combustibles to blaze for two hours. It is lighted one hour before high-water, and marks an intricate channel navigable for the period it burns.
1875. Bedford, Sailor’s Pocket Bk., v. (ed. 2), 136. The entrances of channels … shall be marked by special buoys with or without staff and globe, or triangle, cage, etc.
8. Falconry. A frame to carry hawks upon. See CADGE sb.1
1828. Sir J. S. Sebright, Observ. Hawking, 64. The hawks are tied upon the cage as upon a perch.
1875. ‘Stonehenge,’ Brit. Sports, I. IV. i. § 3. 291. The oblong cage is four feet six inches by two feet.
9. (See quot.)
1883. J. G. Wood, in Sunday Mag., Oct., 628/2. The nest of the squirrel is known in some parts of England by the name of … ‘cage.’
III. 10. attrib. and in comb., as cage-bar, -bird, -ful, -maker, -seller; cageless adj.; also CAGE-WORK.
1883. G. Lloyd, Ebb & Flow, II. 81. Great minds beating their wings in vain against the mocking *cage-bars of necessity.
1626. Bacon, Sylva, § 835. Pigeons, and Horses thriue best, if their Houses, and Stables be kept Sweet; And so of *Cage-Birds.
1881. Athenæum, 5 March, 329/3. A *cageful of common finches.
a. 1849. J. C. Mangan, Poems (1859), 185. The *Cageless Wild-bird.
1693. Lond. Gaz., No. 2837/4. A Germain New Fashion *Cage-maker.
c. 1500. Cocke Lorelles B. (1843), 10. Pouche makers, belowfarmes, and *cage sellers.
