something, as a glove, thrown down by a medieval knight in token of challenge to combat.
Archaic. a challenge.
Archaic. a pledge or pawn; security.
something deposited as security against the fulfilment of an obligation; pledge
(formerly) a glove or other object thrown down to indicate a challenge to combat
First recorded in 1450–1500; late Middle English, from Old French g(u)age, from Germanic; compare Gothic wadi “a pledge”; cf. wage
First recorded in 1840–50; by shortening
A gage is an instrument for measuring, like the gas gage in your car that tells you it's time to fill 'er up. It's also spelled "gauge." As a verb, to gage is to place a bet. As a noun, it's something thrown down, like a glove you chuck at someone and challenge them to a duel. As a way of measuring, a gage can refer to the thickness of a needle or a shotgun. You don't need an instrument, though, you might gage how much time you have left outside by looking at the sun. Sticklers use gauge for measuring and gage for duels and bets.
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Ms. Gage acknowledges this, quoting President Lyndon B. Johnson’s description of American history as “the excitement of becoming.”
From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 1, 2026
Ms. Gage deals with it by visiting the remnants of a Japanese internment camp at Manzanar, Calif., and the research facility in Los Alamos, N.M., where U.S. government scientists built the atomic bomb.
From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 1, 2026
Ms. Gage, who teaches American history at Yale, presents the book as an attempt, timed for the semiquincentennial, to improve the contemporary “national historical dialogue, which tends to emphasize veneration or damnation over real understanding.”
From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 1, 2026
Attorney Brad Gage, who represented the officer’s mother, said they were disappointed after the two-week trial and planned to appeal.
From Los Angeles Times • Feb. 19, 2026
General Gage had ordered that no bells were to be rung for funerals, for fear the rebels should know how sickly lay the city.
From "The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation, Volume II: The Kingdom on the Waves" by M.T. Anderson
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
