caged

1. 1
   adjective

   Shut up and kept inside a cage.

   He paced the hallway like a caged animal.

   Caged parrots often pull out their own feathers when they are bored.

   Similarcaptive, confined, penned

   Oppositefree, wild

2. 2
   verb

   Past tense and past participle of cage.

   Strict deadlines caged her creativity during her first years at the firm.

   The keepers caged the tigers for the night before the storm hit.

   Note

   After be the form can report an action (the bear was caged at dusk) or describe a lasting state (the bear was caged for years), and before a noun it becomes the adjective. Specialists use it too: pilots speak of a caged artificial horizon, one locked in place, and political campaigns of voters caged by tracking replies to direct mail.

3. 3
   adjective

   Of eggs, laid by birds kept in cages rather than by free-range birds.

   The bakery switched from caged eggs to free-range ones after customers complained.

   Several supermarket chains have promised to stop selling caged eggs.

   Oppositefree-range

   Note

   Here the cage belongs to the bird, and the word has shifted to what she lays, just as free-range has. The two travel as a pair: in Kathy Smith and John Loughran's Quality Learning (2017), a class compares the flavor of caged eggs with free-range ones and mostly prefers the free-range.

4. 4
   adjective

   Made or shaped like a cage.

   Warehouse staff load parcels into caged carts that roll straight onto the train.

   The workshop lamp hangs in a caged fitting that protects the bulb.

   Note

   The cage here describes construction, not captivity: sides of open bars or mesh. Modern Railways in 1964 describes a parcel container with three caged sides and web straps on the fourth to stop the load from shifting. Whatever sits inside is simply held, which is the difference from the confinement meaning.

5. 5
   adjectiveslangderogatory

   Held in jail or prison.

   Half the crew got caged after the raid, and the rest went quiet.

   Guys like that belong caged, the caller shouted into the radio.

   Oppositefree

   Note

   The insult lies in the comparison: a person in prison is spoken of like an animal behind bars. That makes it a word for tough talk and angry calls for punishment, and it carries contempt even when used casually. Jailed, imprisoned and incarcerated are the neutral choices for news reports, legal writing and anything formal.

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