as in to beg
to persuade someone to give you (something) for free
He spent his time trying to cadge drinks from the customers. She cadged money from her sister.
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Recent Examples of cadge
Schwarzenegger made a pilgrimage to Washington to cadge more money from the government, but came home empty-handed.
—
Michael Hiltzik, Los Angeles Times, 10 June 2025
Ansa works in a Helsinki supermarket, collecting expired food and cadging the odd casserole for her dinner.
—Ann Hornaday, Washington Post, 4 Dec. 2023
One weekend, a colleague cadged a Chrysler minivan.
—Brett Berk, Car and Driver, 1 May 2023
At a more than two-hour sentencing hearing before Chief U.S. District Judge John J. McConnell Jr. in Providence Tuesday, prosecutors and victims described the litany of Cavanaugh’s schemes, from bilking charities out of hundreds of thousands of dollars to cadging beers at a local bar.
—Brian Amaral, BostonGlobe.com, 14 Mar. 2023
See All Example Sentences for cadge
Michael Hiltzik, Los Angeles Times, 10 June 2025
Ansa works in a Helsinki supermarket, collecting expired food and cadging the odd casserole for her dinner.
—Ann Hornaday, Washington Post, 4 Dec. 2023
One weekend, a colleague cadged a Chrysler minivan.
—Brett Berk, Car and Driver, 1 May 2023
At a more than two-hour sentencing hearing before Chief U.S. District Judge John J. McConnell Jr. in Providence Tuesday, prosecutors and victims described the litany of Cavanaugh’s schemes, from bilking charities out of hundreds of thousands of dollars to cadging beers at a local bar.
—Brian Amaral, BostonGlobe.com, 14 Mar. 2023
See All Example Sentences for cadge
Recent Examples of Synonyms for cadge
Verb
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Still, the rapid adoption of Burrito League begs the challenge—what the hell is so appealing about running around and around and around the same restaurant for days on end?—
Frederick Dreier,
Outside,
30 Jan. 2026
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At a January press conference, executive producer Ben Winston admitted to getting on his knees and begging the comedian to return.—
Allison DeGrushe,
Entertainment Weekly,
29 Jan. 2026
Verb
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The uncle alleged that the donations made by Yamagami’s mother, which by then totalled seven hundred thousand dollars, had been coerced.—
E. Tammy Kim,
New Yorker,
26 Jan. 2026
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Don't let somebody coerce you into scanning them up on the floor, because everybody's trying to get to Coach Prime.—
Jackson Thompson,
FOXNews.com,
24 Jan. 2026
Verb
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Mu Hee’s visits her Uncle and Aunt, and requests them to ask her father the whereabouts of her mother.—
Hannah Abraham,
Forbes.com,
29 Jan. 2026
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The Senate could split off DHS funding from the rest of the spending legislation, as Democrats are requesting, and send it back to the House.—
David Sivak,
The Washington Examiner,
28 Jan. 2026
Verb
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On the company’s earnings call, analysts asked CEO Tim Cook several questions about Apple’s access to memory components, which have seen their prices skyrocket due to demand related to chips necessary for artificial intelligence data centers.—
Kif Leswing,
CNBC,
30 Jan. 2026
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Schnell said his department has repeatedly asked DHS to provide underlying data, methodologies or jurisdictional breakdowns but has received no response.—
Elizabeth Wolfe,
CNN Money,
30 Jan. 2026
Verb
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Or perhaps that is the concern conjured by the hysteria of Y2K—with its fads of fears pumped by a skepticism over technology and wars people could not hold so freshly after the recession of the early 1990s.—
Literary Hub,
Literary Hub,
28 Jan. 2026
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While these might conjure images of Old World Rome, the central hub of the ship has a decidedly high-tech LED screen on the ceiling that changes throughout the day.—
Patrick Connolly,
The Orlando Sentinel,
27 Jan. 2026
Verb
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On top of that, Nico is also, quite obviously, just mooching off/clinging to Mindy because he got cut off by his family.—
Jessica M. Goldstein,
Vulture,
19 Dec. 2025
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The Netflix rep says there is no correlation between this change and people mooching off other people's accounts.—
Boone Ashworth,
Wired News,
1 Dec. 2025
Verb
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In August 2024, federal prosecutors accused JMG Investments and Schwartz of improperly receiving two PPP loans in December 2020 and not repaying the duplicate loan as required, according to the DOJ.—
Andrea Klick,
Daily News,
27 Jan. 2026
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Changing this dynamic requires support from labor unions, which often perceive this way of housing construction as a threat.—
The Editorial Board,
Oc Register,
27 Jan. 2026
Verb
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For that reason, Democrats are demanding that any compromise be codified into law, and so far, Republicans are entertaining the conversation.—
David Sivak,
The Washington Examiner,
31 Jan. 2026
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Warsh, if approved by the Senate, will be under close scrutiny from financial markets and Congress given his appointment by a president who has loudly demanded much lower rates than many economists think are justified by economic conditions.—
Christopher Rugaber,
Fortune,
31 Jan. 2026
Cite this Entry
“Cadge.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/cadge. Accessed 3 Feb. 2026.
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