cadge

Etymology

Possibly a corruption of cage, from Old French.

noun

1. (falconry) A circular frame on which cadgers carry hawks for sale.

verb

1. (Tyneside) To beg.
   Are ye gannin te cadge a lift of yoer fatha?
2. (US, Britain, slang) To obtain something by wit or guile; to convince people to do something they might not normally do.
   They moved about the bar incessantly, cadging cigarettes and drinks, with something behind their eyes at once terribly vulnerable and terribly hard. 1956, James Baldwin, Giovanni’s Room, Penguin, published 2001, Part One, Chapter 2
   1960, Lionel Bart, “Food, Glorious Food,” song from the musical Oliver! There’s not a crust, not a crumb can we find, can we beg, can we borrow, or cadge […]
3. To carry hawks and other birds of prey.
   For quotations using this term, see Citations:cadge.
4. (UK, Scotland, dialect) To carry, as a burden.
   Another Atlas that will cadge a whole world of iniuries without fainting. 1607, Thomas Walkington, The Optick Glasse of Humors
5. (UK, Scotland, dialect) To hawk or peddle, as fish, poultry, etc.
6. (UK, Scotland, dialect) To intrude or live on another meanly; to beg.
   Cadging on the fly is a profitable occupation in the vicinity of bathing places, and large towns. A person of this description frequently gets many shillings in the course of the day 1839, Glasgow Society, Report for Repressing Juvenile Delinquency