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cage (kāj)
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n.
1. A structure for confining birds or animals, enclosed on at least one side by a grating of wires or bars that lets in air and light.
2. A barred room or fenced enclosure for confining prisoners.
3. An enclosing openwork structure: placed a protective cage over the sapling; a bank teller's cage.
4. A skeletal support, as for a building; a framework.
5. An elevator car.
6.
a. Baseball A batting cage.
b. Sports A goal, as in hockey or soccer, made of a net attached to a frame.
tr.v. caged, cag·ing, cag·es
To put or confine in or as if in a cage. See Synonyms at enclose.

[Middle English, from Old French, from Latin cavea.]

The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition copyright ©2022 by HarperCollins Publishers. All rights reserved.
 
Cage (kāj), John Milton 1912-1992.
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American musical theorist and composer of avant-garde works, such as Sonatas and Interludes for a piano with its strings damped by wood and metal (1946-1948).

The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition copyright ©2022 by HarperCollins Publishers. All rights reserved.
 

Indo-European & Semitic Roots Appendices

    Thousands of entries in the dictionary include etymologies that trace their origins back to reconstructed proto-languages. You can obtain more information about these forms in our online appendices:

    Indo-European Roots

    Semitic Roots

    The Indo-European appendix covers nearly half of the Indo-European roots that have left their mark on English words. A more complete treatment of Indo-European roots and the English words derived from them is available in our Dictionary of Indo-European Roots.