gage
noun
something, as a glove, thrown down by a medieval knight in token of challenge to combat.
gage
1 American
[geyj]
/ geɪdʒ /
noun
-
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.
verb (used with object)
-
gages,
present (3rd person singular)
-
gaged,
past participle, past
-
gaging
present participle
gage
2
American
[geyj]
/ geɪdʒ /
noun
gaged,
gaging
gage
3
American
[geyj]
/ geɪdʒ /
noun
Gage
4
American
[geyj]
/ geɪdʒ /
noun
gage
1
British
/ ɡeɪdʒ /
noun
-
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
verb
Gage
2
British
/ ɡeɪdʒ /
noun
gage
3
British
/ ɡeɪdʒ /
noun
gage
4
British
/ ɡeɪdʒ /
noun
gage
5
British
/ ɡeɪdʒ /
noun
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
gagesimple
-
gagessimple
-
have gagedperfect
-
has gagedperfect
-
am gagingprogressive
-
are gagingprogressive
-
is gagingprogressive
-
have been gagingperfect progressive
-
has been gagingperfect progressive
Past
-
gagedsimple
-
had gagedperfect
-
was gagingprogressive
-
were gagingprogressive
-
had been gagingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of gage1
First recorded in 1450–1500; late Middle English, from Old French g(u)age, from Germanic; compare Gothic wadi “a pledge”; cf. wage
Origin of gage3
First recorded in 1840–50; by shortening
Explanation
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.
Vocabulary lists containing gage
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
The gage was installed many years ago to measure water conditions, the release said.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 31, 2024
As Surrey, he trilled his tongue daringly as he threw down a gage; as a gossiping gardener, he exclaimed a comical “Whaaaaaaaat? Think you the King shall be deposed?”
From New York Times ● Jul. 17, 2020
To gage social compatibility: “Can I picture myself in all of these photos standing next to him?”
From Slate ● Dec. 24, 2019
When fishing in current on the Columbia your speed gage is your rod.
From Seattle Times ● Sep. 25, 2016
"I will take up the gage, if it please the king."
From "A Clash of Kings" by George R.R. Martin
Ms. Gage rightly contends that this region deserves more renown than it often gets.
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
“In May, this man over here, for four days, stood patiently waiting for his chance,” Gage told jurors during his closing remarks, pointing toward Cuellar.
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 19, 2026
The pianist Irwin Gage accompanies Heynis on a disc of German lieder.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 2, 2026
The following Saturday Lyman Gage announced that he would quit as president of the fair, effective April 1, to tend to his own bank.
From "The Devil in the White City" by Erik Larson
His characters are en gaged in a relentless search to figure out what it is they want from a prosaic life; that too was Pavese.
From Time Magazine Archive
He had been a lecturer at Yale, an assistant editor of the Yale Review, and during part of the War had en gaged in liason work abroad.
From Time Magazine Archive
Aside from the academic contribution to the explosion of U.S. interest in the arts, almost no town is too big or too small to be en gaged in a new cultural enterprise of some kind.
From Time Magazine Archive
Obviously, the U.S. was using as a "cover" the story that the U-2 was en gaged in weather-reconnaissance work.
From Time Magazine Archive
The economic status of a family could be as easily gaged by tasting their broth as by counting the weekly income.
From My Lady of the Chimney Corner by Alexander Irvine
"It changes the atmosphere when a heckler goes too far, but it really is about gaging, do the people around me want me to keep going?"
From BBC ● Feb. 14, 2025
It’s just a matter of talking through it and gaging the draft and the people that are coming up and who’s available.
From Seattle Times ● Oct. 2, 2014
The most gaging comment of all came from near the base of the famed extinct volcano Fujiyama, where a reporter interviewed extinct Foreign Minister Yosuke Matsuoka.
From Time Magazine Archive
One hesitates to call an opponent of marriage en gaging, but Germaine Greer is certainly that.
From Time Magazine Archive
Tucking, ruffling, braiding, cording, hemming, turning, plaiting, gaging, and other attachment devices are numerous.
From Inventions in the Century by William Henry Doolittle
The river gage shows the river may reach 192.58 feet The Chehalis Basin Flood Authority has flood inundation maps & river gages for the region on its website.
From Seattle Times ● Jan. 7, 2022
According to stream gages, as much as 58 percent of the water in the Gunnison River — a prominent Colorado River tributary — comes not from snowpack on the peaks above but from groundwater.
From Scientific American ● Jul. 20, 2015
That would buy about 400 new gages to supplement the existing network of some 3130.
From Science Magazine ● Apr. 12, 2013
Readings have come in from deep ocean gages deployed since the 2004 tsunami in Banda Acha in Japan and around Wake Island.
From Washington Post ● Mar. 11, 2011
Everybody began attending to the paraphernalia of a challenge, the usual sealing of the gages with signets and so on, and the fixing of the date.
From "The Once and Future King" by T. H. White
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.
