▪ I. kedge, n.
(kɛdʒ)
[? short for kedge-anchor. Also catch: see catch n.3]
= kedge-anchor.
| 1769 Falconer Dict. Marine (1789), Kedge, a small anchor used to keep a ship steady whilst she rides in a harbour or river, particularly at the turn of the tide... The kedges are also..useful in transporting a ship, i.e. removing her from one part of the harbour to another, by means of ropes. 1833 M. Scott Tom Cringle ix. (1859) 197 The schooner every now and then taking the ground, but she was always quickly warped off again by a kedge. 1854 H. Miller Sch. & Schm. (1858) 22 The other moiety of the men, tugging hard on kedge and haulser, drew the vessel off. |
| Comb. 1836 Encycl. Brit. (ed. 7) XII. 684/1 This is..prevented by a kedge-rope that hinders her from approaching it. |
▪ II. kedge, a. E. Angl. dial.
Also 5 kygge, kydge (? kyde), 9 kidge.
[Of unknown etym.; cf. kedgy, cadgy.]
Brisk, lively; in good spirits.
| c 1440 Promp. Parv. 274/2 Kygge, or ioly (H. kydge, P. kyde), jocundus, hillaris, vernosus. 1674 Ray S. & E. Countrey Words 69 Kedge, brisk, budge, lively, Suff. 1801 Bloomfield Rural T., Rich. & Kate xxiv, I'm surely growing young again; I feel myself so kedge and plump. 1829 H. Murray North America II. iii. iii. 367 Are his spirits kedge? 1856 in W. S. Simpson's Life (1899) 30, I ain't so well to-day as I was yesterday: I was quite kidge then. |
▪ III. kedge, v. Naut.
(kɛdʒ)
Also 7 kedg.
[Perh. a specialized variant of cadge v. For the change from a to e, cf. keg, ketch, from cag, catch, etc.
The earliest forms evidenced are those of the vbl. n. kedging in the comb. cagging-anchor, -cable, and the agent-n. kedger (cagger) which are perh. to be referred to cadge v. in the sense ‘tie, fasten’. The vb. may be a back-formation from this, after the special sense was developed.]
intr. a. To warp a ship, or move it from one position to another by winding in a hawser attached to a small anchor dropped at some distance; also trans. to warp. b. Of a ship: To move by means of kedging.
| 1627 Capt. Smith Seaman's Gram. vii. 29 The least are called Kedgers, to use in calme weather.., or to kedg vp and downe a narrow Riuer. 1678 Phillips (ed. 4), To Kedge, to set up the Foresail or Foretopsail and Missen, and set a Ship to drive with the Tide [1706 letting fall, and lifting up the Kedge-Anchor, as often as Occasion serves] when in a narrow River we would bring her up or down, the Wind being contrary to the Tide. 1840 R. H. Dana Bef. Mast xxiv. 75 She went to windward as though she were kedging. 1897 tr. Nansen's Farthest North I. 166 We ‘kedged’ the Fram with her anchor just clear of the bottom. |
So kedging (ˈkɛdʒɪŋ) vbl. n. (also 5 caggering (?), cagg(e)-, kaggyng), warping with a kedge-anchor; also attrib.
| 1485 Naval Acc. Hen. VII (1896) 52 Cables..vj, Caggering [sic] cables..j. 1486 Ibid. 12 A caggeyng cable weying m{supl}c iij quarterons. Ibid. 18 Caggyng cable..j. 1495 Ibid. 192 Kaggyng Ankers..ij. 1497 Ibid. 290 Ankers of diuerse sortes..Caggyng Ankers j, Warpyng Ankers j. 1627 Capt. Smith Seaman's Gram. vii. 29 They row by her with an Anchor in a boat, and..so by a Hawser winde her head about,..and this is kedging. 1704 J. Harris Lex. Techn. s.v., They..let fall [a small anchor] in the middle of the Stream, and so wend or turn her Head about, lifting the Anchor up again... This work is called Kedging,..and the Anchor..the Kedger, or Kedge-Anchor. 1830 Marryat King's Own xlii. 1891 Times 24 Oct. 6/6 That he had, during a calm, propelled the Minnow by means of kedging. |