Word Confusion: Gage versus Gauge

Plural for the noun: gages
Gerund: gaging

Third person present verb: gages
Past tense or past participle: gaged
Present participle: gaging

Alternative spelling for gauge

Plural for the noun: gages
Gerund: gauging

Third person present verb: gauges
Past tense or past participle: gauged
Present participle: gauging

Alternative spelling for gage

Glove thrown down as a challenge to a fight

Short for greengage

A form of jewelry which creates a hole of variable size in the earlobe, popular especially among some young people in the West, perhaps on analogy with similar devices found in various non-Western indigenous cultures (Wiktionary)

Verb, transitive:
Always use followed by a direct object ²

[Archaic] To wager, to bet

Thickness, size, or capacity of something

Verb, transitive:
To estimate or determine the magnitude, amount, or volume of something ²

Form a judgement or estimate of a situation

Measure the dimensions of an object

He threw down his gage.

He’s got the weather gage.

For a crop of apples, pears, plums, damsons, gages, or cherries, which are left outside all year round, try dwarf and pyramid fruit trees.

Thomas Rivers brought it to England where it became the seed of a worthy line of gages propagated in his nursery at Sawbridgeworth.

Verb, transitive:
I gage thee my life!

A guide sent to them by the headman of this place gaged his life as a forfeit if he failed.

The Environmental Agency’s rain level gauges around the region confirmed the intensity of the downpour.

Early in the session, both market gauges hit their highest levels since June 3, 2002.

On a desktop computer in the debrief room, you can display flight instruments, gauges, flight paths, and tactical plots.

He has his own gauge of whether his dishes work or not.

He also checked the two visual fuel gauges on the left forward face of the bomb bay bulkhead behind the flight deck.

Silk chiffon and fine gauge were paraded alongside high-ribbed cashmere sweaters in contrasting colors.

The leads are introduced into the patient’s muscles via a small gauge hollow-bore needle.

It can manage any bore size from .22 to 10 gauge and barrels up to 30 inches long.

Sheetmetal comes in different thicknesses, from 16 gauge to 30 gauge, with lower numbers being thicker.

Verb, transitive:
We’ll have to gauge that exactly.

Astronomers can gauge the star’s intrinsic brightness.

You can only gauge how well any tool works by putting it into action.

They sat gauging the situation by their mother’s expression.

When dry the assemblies can be gauged exactly.

Covered in gauged green slate tiles, the garage has the look of a built-in.

1. Middle English is from the Old French gage and is of Germanic origin and related to wage and wed.
2. Middle English is from the Old French gager and is of Germanic origin and related to wage and wed.

1. Middle English (denoting a standard measure) is from the Old French gauge in a variant of the Old Northern French jauge and is of unknown origin.
2. Middle English (denoting a standard measure) is from the Old French gauger in a variant of the Old Northern French jauger and is of unknown origin.