/ kædʒ; NAmE / verb
cadge (sth) (from / off sb) ( BrE , informal ) to ask sb for food, money, etc. especially because you cannot or do not want to pay for sth yourself :
[ vn ]
I managed to cadge some money off my dad.
[also v ]
► cadger noun
••
WORD ORIGIN
early 17th cent. (in the dialect sense carry about ): back-formation from the noun cadger , which dates from the late 15th cent., denoting (in northern English and Scots ) a travelling dealer, which led to the verb sense hawk, peddle , giving rise to the current verb senses from the early 19th cent.