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.
The gage was installed many years ago to measure water conditions, the release said.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 31, 2024
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
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
If Ms. Gage wanted some celebratory leaven, she could have visited Dayton, Ohio’s many sites devoted to the Wright Brothers and their world-changing invention.
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
“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
They produced two identical solutions: The letter, addressed to General Gage, contained reports on Washington’s military plans and on the strength of the Continental Army.
From "George Washington, Spymaster" by Thomas B. Allen
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
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
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
The blade clearances also should be gaged all around the circumference, to insure this clearance being an average working minimum.
From Steam Turbines A Book of Instruction for the Adjustment and Operation of the Principal Types of this Class of Prime Movers by Collins, Hubert E. (Hubert Edwin)
"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
By planing the ends and the width before the thickness is planed, a dressed face is secured all around for gaging the thickness.
From Handwork in Wood by Noyes, William
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.
