cage

Meanings

Noun

• An enclosure made of bars, normally to hold animals.
• The passenger compartment of a lift.
• The goal.
• An automobile.
• Something that hinders freedom.
• The area from which competitors throw a discus or hammer.
• An outer framework of timber, enclosing something within it.
• A skeleton frame to limit the motion of a loose piece, such as a ball valve.
• A wirework strainer, used in connection with pumps and pipes.
• The drum on which the rope is wound in a hoisting whim.
• The catcher's wire mask.
• A regular graph that has as few vertices as possible for its girth.

Verb

• To confine in a cage; to put into and keep in a cage.
• To restrict someone's movement or creativity.
• To immobilize an artificial horizon.
• To track individual responses to direct mail, either to maintain and develop mailing lists or to identify people who are not eligible to vote because they do not reside at the registered addresses.

Origin

• From Middle English cage, from Old French cage, from Latin cavea. jail.