cadge

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for March 29, 2026 is: cadge • KAJ  • verb To cadge something is to persuade someone to give it to you for free. Cadge can also mean “to take, use, or borrow (something) without acknowledgment.” // I don’t know how, but my brother always manages to cadge an extra scoop of ice cream on his sundaes. // The last line of the poem is cadged from Shelley’s “Ozymandias.” See the entry > Examples: “How could a convenient route between housing estates—and friends’ homes—be an issue? Let me explain—it was all Sherlock Holmes’ fault. Him and his terrifying Hound Of The Baskervilles. … There were occasions when my imagination took over completely and I ended up going the long way round through the busier, better-lit roads of the village. Those beasties wouldn't dare to come off the greens and into the gardens. I never admitted this to any of my friends, not even those brave enough to cadge a lift from me on occasion.” — Mary-Jane Duncan, The Press and Journal (Scotland), 18 Oct. 2025 Did you know? Long ago, peddlers traveled the British countryside, each with a packhorse or a horse and cart—first carrying produce from rural farms to town markets, then returning with small wares to sell to country folk. The Middle English word for such traders was cadgear; Scottish dialects rendered the term as cadger. The verb cadge was created as a back-formation of cadger (which is to say, it was formed by removal of the “-er” suffix). At its most general, cadger meant “carrier,” and the verb cadge meant “to carry.” More specifically, the verb meant to go about as a cadger or peddler. By the 1800s, it was used when someone who posed as a peddler turned out to be more of a beggar, from which arose the present-day use of the verb cadge for the action of trying to get something for free by persuading or imposing on another person.