a boxlike enclosure having wires, bars, or the like, for confining and displaying birds or animals.
anything that confines or imprisons; prison.
something resembling a cage in structure, as for a cashier or bank teller.
the car or enclosed platform of an elevator.
Mining. an enclosed platform for raising and lowering people and cars in a mine shaft.
any skeleton framework.
Baseball. a movable backstop for use mainly in batting practice.
a frame with a net attached to it, forming the goal in ice hockey and field hockey.
Basketball: Older Use. the basket.
a loose, sheer or lacy overdress worn with a slip or a close-fitting dress.
Ordnance. a steel framework for supporting guns.
Machinery. retainer.
to put or confine in or as if in a cage.
Sports. to shoot (as a puck) into a cage so as to score a goal.
an enclosure, usually made with bars or wire, for keeping birds, monkeys, mice, etc
( as modifier )
cagebird
a thing or place that confines or imprisons
something resembling a cage in function or structure
the rib cage
the enclosed platform of a lift, esp as used in a mine
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
informal the basket used in basketball
informal the goal in ice hockey
a steel framework on which guns are supported
informal to upset or anger someone
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
A cage is a structure that keeps an animal captive. If you decide to raise a tiger in your bedroom, it's best to have a sturdy cage. Cage is equally at home as a noun or verb. For instance, a batting cage is fun, but a free bird does not desire you to cage it. A cage of an elevator is great to ride to the 30th floor, but not so great if you’re riding it down into the mines and it breaks 40 feet below the earth.
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
And at a White House cage fight, a former first lady was brazenly disparaged.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 24, 2026
Winning is hard enough without a right-on-right cage match.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 23, 2026
“Never let the salary range shrink your own expectation if you were already aiming higher,” he said, adding that a salary range is a “floor to build on, not a cage or a ceiling.”
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 22, 2026
She describes a “popular annual cocktail buffet at the Hay Adams Hotel on the rooftop overlooking the White House” on the night of Trump’s UFC cage fight on the White House lawn.
From Salon ● Jul. 21, 2026
The judges had gone on ahead, moving from table to table, cage to cage.
From "All About Sam" by Lois Lowry
It will follow the 2007 film of the same name starring Nicolas Cage, and its follow-up, 2011's Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance.
From BBC ● Jul. 26, 2026
Cage, who wrote music to suppress his ego, had a problem with Ono’s exhibitionism.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 21, 2026
Still the idea that “Apartment House” need not stand alone, that our traditions and those of long-ago Japan belong together, represented for Cage a future for America.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 2, 2026
Fun fact: The movie’s director, Michael Sarnoski, loves a prickly hero: He also made “Pig,” which stars Nicolas Cage as a gruff truffle hunter.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 6, 2026
One of their favorites was Raising Arizona, with Nicolas Cage, which Michael’s mother let him watch even though it was PG-13.
From "The First State of Being" by Erin Entrada Kelly
Five moon bears which have spent decades living in cages in South Korea have been cleared by vets to be moved to Suffolk.
From BBC ● Jun. 29, 2026
Military vehicles were decked out with antidrone jammers and protective cages.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 12, 2026
Tom Cruise spends the movie running through New Jersey with two terrified kids while ash drifts through the streets and giant alien war machines scoop humans into dangling metal cages.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 11, 2026
Biologists and national park staff wearing masks and gloves set up dozens of small rectangular metal cages on trails outside Ushuaia as night fell.
From Barron's ● May 19, 2026
The doves that appear onstage and occasionally in the audience during Prospero’s performances are kept in elaborate cages, delivered to each theater along with the rest of his luggage and supplies.
From "The Night Circus" by Erin Morgenstern
We passed a caged dog and saw a puppy on a short leash being loaded into a vehicle.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 8, 2026
Her caged parakeet in the upper corner stares back at us, acknowledging our voyeurism.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 6, 2026
Scared by his sincerity, Violetta warns him off with a bouncy display of vocal fireworks that declare that she isn’t one to be caged by commitment.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 13, 2026
In the third episode, a challenge requires half of those remaining to be caged while a partner stacks animal skulls into a tower to free them.
From Salon ● Jan. 15, 2026
Even caged rats are given water bottles and food pellets.
From "We Are the Ants" by Shaun David Hutchinson
"This generation didn't even have enough to eat growing up. Now with a little money, they have inherited the habit and custom of caging birds," he says.
From BBC ● Dec. 28, 2025
Ben Williamson, who works for PeTA, says that the new box shows that people today no longer accept “the chaining and caging of wild animals.”
From NewsForKids.net ● Apr. 23, 2024
Those include caging seedlings to protect them from hungry animals, which increases their survival odds almost five-fold, according to Erin Knight, a biological science technician at the preserve.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 19, 2024
One tomb, part of a substantial cemetery surrounding a monastery to the west of Xylotymbou village was being used for caging cats.
From Science Daily ● Mar. 7, 2024
Daylight came in x-patterns through the caging at the windows.
From "The Woman Warrior" by Maxine Hong Kingston
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.
