Etymology

Verb

1. To measure.
2. To give or deposit as a pledge or security; to pawn
3. To wager, to bet.

Noun

1. Something, such as a glove or other pledge thrown down as a challenge to combat.

   • 1819, “But it is enough that I challenge the trial by combat — there lies my gage.” She took her embroidered glove from her hand, and flung it down before the Grand Master with an air of mingled simplicity and dignity — Walter Scott, Ivanhoe

2. Used especially as a technical term of measuring devices and standard measures.
3. 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.
4. A short form of greengage.
5. Something valuable deposited as a guarantee or pledge; security, ransom.

Etymology

Noun

1. a pledge or security
2. a guarantee
3. proof, evidence