cage

1. (n) An enclosure made of bars, normally to hold animals. 2. (n) The passenger compartment of a lift. 3. (n) (figuratively) Something that hinders freedom. 4. (n) (slang) A prison or prison cell. 5. (v) (transitive) To confine in a cage; to put into and keep in a cage. 6. (v) (transitive, slang) To imprison. 7. (v) (transitive, figuratively) To restrict someone's movement or creativity. 8. (n) (field hockey or ice hockey, water polo) The goal. 9. (n) (US, derogatory, slang) An automobile. 10. (n) (athletics) The area from which competitors throw a discus or hammer. 11. (n) (baseball, ice hockey) The protective wire mask at the front of a helmet. 12. (n) (engineering) A skeleton frame to limit the motion of a loose piece, such as a ball valve. 13. (n) A wirework strainer, used in connection with pumps and pipes. 14. (n) (mining) The drum on which the rope is wound in a hoisting whim. 15. (n) An outer framework of timber, enclosing something within it. 16. (n) (graph theory) A regular graph that has as few vertices as possible for its girth. 17. (n) In killer sudoku puzzles, an irregularly-shaped group of cells that must contain a set of unique digits adding up to a certain total, in addition to the usual constraints of sudoku. 18. (v) (aviation) To immobilize an artificial horizon. 19. (v) To track individual responses to direct mail, either (advertising) to maintain and develop mailing lists or (politics) to identify people who are not eligible to vote because they do not reside at the registered addresses. 20. (n) A surname from French.