cage

¹

[ keyj ]

noun

1. a boxlike enclosure having wires, bars, or the like, for confining and displaying birds or animals.

   Synonyms: pound, enclosure, coop, pen

2. anything that confines or imprisons; prison.
3. something resembling a cage in structure, as for a cashier or bank teller.
4. the car or enclosed platform of an elevator.
5. Mining. an enclosed platform for raising and lowering people and cars in a mine shaft.
6. any skeleton framework.
7. Baseball. a movable backstop for use mainly in batting practice.
8. a frame with a net attached to it, forming the goal in ice hockey and field hockey.
9. Basketball: Older Use. the basket.
10. a loose, sheer or lacy overdress worn with a slip or a close-fitting dress.
11. Ordnance. a steel framework for supporting guns.
12. Machinery. retainer ¹( def 3 ).

verb (used with object)

, caged, cag·ing.

1. to put or confine in or as if in a cage.
2. Sports. to shoot (as a puck) into a cage so as to score a goal.

Cage

²

[ keyj ]

noun

1. John, 1912–1992, U.S. composer.

cage

¹

/ keɪdʒ /

noun

1. 1. an enclosure, usually made with bars or wire, for keeping birds, monkeys, mice, etc
   2. ( as modifier )

      cagebird

2. a thing or place that confines or imprisons
3. something resembling a cage in function or structure

   the rib cage

4. the enclosed platform of a lift, esp as used in a mine
5. engineering a skeleton ring device that ensures that the correct amount of space is maintained between the individual rollers or balls in a rolling bearing
6. informal.
   the basket used in basketball
7. informal.
   the goal in ice hockey
8. a steel framework on which guns are supported
9. rattle someone's cage informal.
   rattle someone's cage to upset or anger someone

verb

1. tr to confine in or as in a cage

Cage

²

/ keɪdʒ /

noun

1. CageJohn19121992MUSMUSIC: composer of experimental music John. 1912–92, US composer of experimental music for a variety of conventional, modified, or invented instruments. He evolved a type of music apparently undetermined by the composer, such as in Imaginary Landscape (1951) for 12 radio sets. Other works include Reunion (1968), Apartment Building 1776 (1976), and Europeras 3 and 4 (1990)

Other Words From

• cageless adjective
• cagelike adjective
• re·cage verb (used with object) recaged recaging

Word History and Origins

Origin of cage¹

First recorded in 1175–1225; Middle English, from Old French, from Latin cavea “birdcage,” equivalent to cav(us) “hollow” + -ea, feminine of -eus adjective suffix

Word History and Origins

Origin of cage¹

C13: from Old French, from Latin cavea enclosure, from cavus hollow

Example Sentences

In a later experiment, they showed that animals, when given the choice, actively avoided areas of their cages that, when entered, triggered the activation of the neurons.

From MIT Technology Review

Ten weeks later, each monkey was moved with its mother to an unfamiliar cage.

From Science News

The team also analyzed blood levels of the stress hormone cortisol before and after the time spent in the new cage.

From Science News

That blood had been collected before, during and after their time in the new cage.

From Science News For Students

Around the same time, the psychiatrist Cesar Agostini kept dogs in cages rigged with bells that jangled horribly whenever they tried to lie down and sleep, and in the 1920s researchers in Japan did something similar with cages studded with nails.

From Quanta Magazine

But you wonder how even the sane keep from losing their minds when you step into a cell—or rather a cage—at Graterford.

From The Daily Beast

It is empty, the door swung open—perhaps the bird has already flown, or perhaps the cage awaits its next inhabitant.

From The Daily Beast

In fact, in 2000 a 9.0-rated Action Comics No.1 owned by Nicolas Cage was stolen from his house.

From The Daily Beast

In the U.S, Allan Kaprow, an artist pupil of John Cage, came up with the word “Happening” in 1957.

From The Daily Beast

When I first heard about the sport, I assumed that it was a “no holds barred” cage match where pretty much anything goes.

From The Daily Beast

So Hettie put the chicken in a cage, with some wool to cover it, and fed it several times every day, till it came to know her.

From Project Gutenberg

The 'cage' was simply an arrangement for 'straiter custody,' though but rarely judged necessary in the case of ladies.

From Project Gutenberg

Across the middle of the cage a stout barricade has been erected, and behind the barricade sits the Master, pale but defiant.

From Project Gutenberg

A long, portable cage had been put together on the stage during the intermission, and within it the ten pacing beasts.

From Project Gutenberg

The cage went down by the run into the boat, and with a crash fell asunder.

From Project Gutenberg

Related Words

• coop up