gage
noun
something, as a glove, thrown down by a medieval knight in token of challenge to combat.
Showing results for "gage"
- a variation of gauge.
gage
1 American
[gayj]
/ 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
[gayj]
/ geɪdʒ /
noun
gaged,
gaging
gage
3
American
[gayj]
/ geɪdʒ /
noun
Gage
4
American
[gayj]
/ 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:
At one point, the gage measurement on that stretch of the river reached below three inches.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 18, 2026
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
Then he went along with the bag gage to see that it got on the boat.
From "Homesick" by Jean Fritz
Gage looks less mobile as he woodenly directs our attention to the skirmish in the background.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 13, 2026
Ms. Gage rightly contends that this region deserves more renown than it often gets.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 1, 2026
The class had developed such a reputation for roughhousing that some officers took to calling it “Fight Club,” Gage said.
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 19, 2026
Tipping reported the allegation to the department, which in effect made him a whistleblower and entitled him to certain protections, Gage argued.
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 19, 2026
Although it is being pulled by four horses instead of the usual six, this is a New Hampshire-built Concord stagecoach, somewhere in Chile at about the time that Phineas Gage arrived there.
From "Phineas Gage" by John Fleischman
Ex-Ambassador Bullitt pointed to one difficulty: "The state of mind here today is about what it was in France a year before they en gaged in war with Germany."
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
Years ago they established the crank school of economics ; latterly they have founded the tirade school of journalism; they are now en gaged in popularizing the ostrich school of strategy.
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
Chumru saw that he had gaged his man rightly, and the evil glint in the subadar’s eyes told him the unspoken thought.
From The Red Year A Story of the Indian Mutiny by Louis Tracy
"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
One hesitates to call an opponent of marriage en gaging, but Germaine Greer is certainly that.
From Time Magazine Archive
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
In the center of the cooking utensil is placed a small cylinder made of slats of bamboo to serve for gaging the amount of evaporation.
From The Manóbos of Mindanáo Memoirs of the National Academy of Sciences, Volume XXIII, First Memoir by John M. Garvan
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.
