Definition of "cadge"

cadge

/kæd͡ʒ/

noun
plural cadges
1. (falconry) A circular frame on which cadgers carry hawks for sale.
verb
third-person singular simple present cadges, present participle cadging or cadgin, simple past and past participle cadged
1. (Tyneside) To beg.
2. (US, Britain, slang) To obtain something by wit or guile; to convince people to do something they might not normally do.
  Quotations
  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
  There’s not a crust, not a crumb can we find, / can we beg, can we borrow, or cadge […]
  1960, Lionel Bart, “Food, Glorious Food,” song from the musical Oliver!
3. To carry hawks and other birds of prey.
4. (UK, Scotland, dialect) To carry, as a burden.
  Quotations
  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.
  Quotations
  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