Gage

Pronunciation

• IPA: /É¡eɪdÍ¡Ê’/
• Rhymes: -eɪdÊ’

From Middle English gage, from later Old French or early Middle French gager (verb), (also guagier in Old French) gage (noun), ultimately from Frankish *waddi, from (whence English wed). Doublet of wage, from the same origin through the Old Northern French variant wage. See also mortgage.

Full definition of gage

Verb

1. (obsolete) To give or deposit as a pledge or security; to pawn.
• ShakespeareA moiety competent
  Was gaged by our king.
2. (archaic) To wager, to bet.
• FordThis feast, I'll gage my life,
  Is but a plot to train you to your ruin.
3. To bind by pledge, or security; to engage.
• ShakespeareGreat debts
  Wherein my time, sometimes too prodigal,
  Hath left me gaged.

Noun

1. Something, such as a glove or other pledge, thrown down as a challenge to combat (now usually figurative).
• 1819, Walter Scott, Ivanhoe:“But it is enough that I challenge the trial by combat — there lies my gage.” She took her embroidered glove from her hand, and flung it down before the Grand Master with an air of mingled simplicity and dignity…
• 1988, James McPherson, Battle Cry for Freedom, Oxford 2003, page 166:The gage was down for a duel that would split the Democratic party and ensure the election of a Republican president in 1860.
2. (obsolete) Something valuable deposited as a guarantee or pledge; security, ransom.
• SandysNor without gages to the needy lend.

See gauge.

Verb

1. Alternative spelling of gauge To measure.

Named after the Gage family of England, who imported the greengage from France.

Noun

1. A subspecies of plum, .

Derived terms

• blue gage
• frost gage
• golden gage
• greengage