E. Cobham Brewer 1810–1897. Dictionary of Phrase and Fable. 1898.
Cadger.
One who carries butter, eggs, and poultry to market; a packman or huckster. From cadge (to carry). Hence the frame on which hawks were carried was called “a cadge,” and the man who carried it, a “cadger.” A man of low degree.
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“Every cadger thinks himself as good as an earl.”—McDonald: Malcolm, part ix, chap. xlv. p. 183.
