marge

plural marges

1. archaicMargin; edge; brink or verge.

   […] And thy sea-marge, sterile and rocky-hard, / Where thou thyself dost air [...]

   1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tempest”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene i]

   4 more examples

   [F]lowers that in perennial blow / Round the moist marge of Persian fountains cling; […]

   1820, William Wordsworth, “The River Duddon. A Series of Sonnets. Sonnet I.”, in The River Duddon: A Series of Sonnets: Vaudracour and Julia; and Other Poems. […], London: […] [Andrew and Robert Spottiswoode] for Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, & Brown, […], →OCLC, page 3

   So be it: there no shade can last / ⁠In that deep dawn behind the tomb, / ⁠But clear from marge to marge shall bloom / The eternal landscape of the past; / A lifelong tract of time reveal'd; […]

   1850, [Alfred, Lord Tennyson], “Canto XLV”, in In Memoriam, London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC, page 68

   Upon an easy slope it lies at large, / And scarcely overlaps the long curved crest / Which swells out two leagues from the river marge, […]

   1870–1874, James Thomson, “The City of Dreadful Night”, in The City of Dreadful Night and Other Poems, London: Reeves and Turner, […], published 1880, →OCLC, part I, page 5

   Till I came to the marge of Lake Lebarge, and a derelict there lay; / It was jammed in the ice, but I saw in a trice it was called the "Alice May." / And I looked at it, and I thought a bit, and I looked at my frozen chum: / Then "Here," said I, with a sudden cry, "is my cre-ma-tor-eum."

   1907, Robert W[illiam] Service, “The Cremation of Sam McGee”, in Songs of a Sourdough, Toronto, Ont.: William Briggs, →OCLC, stanza 10, page 38

plural marges · alternative marg

1. AustraliaCanadaIrelandNew ZealandUKabbreviationclippinginformaluncountableusuallyClipping of margarine.

   Or probably all meals coalesced with him in an orgy of thick bread-and-marge and an array of sauce-bottles.

   1958, Anthony Burgess, The Enemy in the Blanket (The Malayan Trilogy), published 1972, page 246

present singular third person marges · participle present marging · participle past marged · past marged · alternative marg

1. informalTo add margarine to.

   Synonyms: margarine

plural marges

1. Multicultural London EnglishMother.

   Had four bills and I bought me a car / Little red whip that I bought for my marge

   2015, Stormzy, “Shut Up” (track 15), in Gang Signs & Prayer, performed by Stormzy

   1 more example

   I think about my family too. My dad and his failing heart. My marge and her church. I think about what they'll do once I'm gone. Think about the way out, the blue space above.

   2018, Guy Gunaratne, In Our Mad and Furious City, London: Tinder Press, →ISBN, page unknown

   Synonyms: dam, mater, matriarch, mother, Mother, Colloquial or slang synonyms:, ma, mam

plural Marges · alternative Marj

1. A diminutive of the female given names Marjorie and Margaret.