Cadging, begging, generally with an eye to pilfering when an opportunity occurs. To be “on the cadge” is almost synonymous with “on the make.”
Cag, to irritate, affront, anger. Schoolboy slang.
Cage, a minor kind of prison. A country lock-up which contained no offices.
Cagmag, bad food, scraps, odds and ends; or that which no one could relish. Grose give CAGG MAGGS, old and tough Lincolnshire geese, sent to London to feast the poor cockneys. Gael., French, and Welsh, CAC, and MAGN. A correspondent at Trinity College, Dublin, considers this as originally a University slang term for a bad cook, κακὸς μάγειρος. There is also a Latin word used by Pliny, MAGMA, denoting dregs or dross.
Cake, a “flat;” a soft or doughy person, a fool.
Cakey-Pannum-Fencer, or PANNUM-FENCER, a man who sells street pastry.
Calaboose, a prison.—Sea slang, from the Spanish.
Calculate, a word much in use among the inhabitants of the Western States U.S., as “I CALCULATE you are a stranger here.” New Englanders use the word “guess” instead of CALCULATE, while the Virginians prefer to say “reckon.”
Caleb Quotem, a parish clerk; a jack of all trades. From a character in The Wags of Windsor.
California, or Californians, money. Term generally applied to gold only. Derivation very obvious.