cadger

English

Etymology

From the archaic verb cadge (“to carry”) +‎ -er.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈkæd͡ʒɚ/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

Noun

cadger (plural cadgers)

1. (archaic) A hawker or peddler.
   • 1928, D[avid] H[erbert] Lawrence, Lady Chatterley’s Lover, [Germany?]: Privately printed, →OCLC:

     He was not a regular gondolier, so he had none of the cadger and prostitute about him.

2. (sometimes Geordie) A beggar.
   • 1851, Charles Dickens, On Duty with Inspector Field:

     A woman mysteriously sitting up all night in the dark by the smouldering ashes of the kitchen fire, says it's only tramps and cadgers here

Related terms

• cadge
• codger

Translations

hawker or peddler

Bulgarian: просяк (bg) (prosjak)

Further reading

• Cadger in the Encyclopædia Britannica (11th edition, 1911)
• Frank Graham, editor (1987), “CADGER”, in The New Geordie Dictionary, Rothbury, Northumberland: Butler Publishing, →ISBN.
• Northumberland Words, English Dialect Society, R. Oliver Heslop, 1893–4
• Michael Quinion (1996–2025), “Cadge”, in World Wide Words.

Anagrams

• graced