Cave vs. Cage — What's the Difference?

A cave or cavern is a natural void in the ground, specifically a space large enough for a human to enter. Caves often form by the weathering of rock and often extend deep underground.

A cage is an enclosure often made of mesh, bars, or wires, used to confine, contain or protect something or someone. A cage can serve many purposes, including keeping an animal or person in captivity, capturing an animal or person, and displaying an animal at a zoo.

A natural underground chamber in a hillside or cliff

A structure for confining birds or animals, enclosed on at least one side by a grating of wires or bars that lets in air and light.

Explore caves as a sport

A barred room or fenced enclosure for confining prisoners.

Capitulate or submit under pressure; cave in

An enclosing openwork structure

(among children) look out!

A skeletal support, as for a building; a framework.

A hollow or natural passage under or into the earth, especially one with an opening to the surface.

An elevator car.

A storage cellar, especially for wine.

(Baseball) A batting cage.

To dig or hollow out.

(Sports) A goal, as in hockey or soccer, made of a net attached to a frame.

To cause to collapse or fall in. Often used with in

To put or confine in or as if in a cage.

To fall in; collapse. Often used with in

An enclosure made of bars, normally to hold animals.

To give up all opposition; yield. Often used with in

The passenger compartment of a lift.

To explore caves.

The goal.

A large, naturally-occurring cavity formed underground or in the face of a cliff or a hillside.

An automobile.

A hole, depression, or gap in earth or rock, whether natural or man-made.

(figuratively) Something that hinders freedom.

A storage cellar, especially for wine or cheese.

(athletics) The area from which competitors throw a discus or hammer.

A place of retreat, such as a man cave.

An outer framework of timber, enclosing something within it.

(caving) A naturally-occurring cavity in bedrock which is large enough to be entered by an adult.

(engineering) A skeleton frame to limit the motion of a loose piece, such as a ball valve.

(nuclear physics) A shielded area where nuclear experiments can be carried out.

A wirework strainer, used in connection with pumps and pipes.

Debris, particularly broken rock, which falls into a drill hole and interferes with drilling.

(mining) The drum on which the rope is wound in a hoisting whim.

(mining) A collapse or cave-in.

(baseball) The catcher's wire mask.

The vagina.

(graph theory) A regular graph that has as few vertices as possible for its girth.

A group that breaks from a larger political party or faction on a particular issue.

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.

(obsolete) Any hollow place, or part; a cavity.

To confine in a cage; to put into and keep in a cage.

(programming) A code cave.

(figuratively) To restrict someone's movement or creativity.

To surrender.

(aviation) To immobilize an artificial horizon.

To collapse.

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.

To hollow out or undermine.

A box or inclosure, wholly or partly of openwork, in wood or metal, used for confining birds or other animals.

To engage in the recreational exploration of caves.

A place of confinement for malefactors

(mining) In room-and-pillar mining, to extract a deposit of rock by breaking down a pillar which had been holding it in place.

An outer framework of timber, inclosing something within it; as, the cage of a staircase.

To work over tailings to dress small pieces of marketable ore.

A skeleton frame to limit the motion of a loose piece, as a ball valve.

(obsolete) To dwell in a cave.

The box, bucket, or inclosed platform of a lift or elevator; a cagelike structure moving in a shaft.

Look out!; beware!

The drum on which the rope is wound in a hoisting whim.

A hollow place in the earth, either natural or artificial; a subterraneous cavity; a cavern; a den.

The catcher's wire mask.

Any hollow place, or part; a cavity.

To confine in, or as in, a cage; to shut up or confine.

A coalition or group of seceders from a political party, as from the Liberal party in England in 1866. See Adullam, Cave of, in the Dictionary of Noted Names in Fiction.

An enclosure made or wire or metal bars in which birds or animals are kept

To make hollow; to scoop out.

Something that restricts freedom as a cage restricts movement

To dwell in a cave.

United States composer of avant-garde music (1912-1992)

To fall in or down; as, the sand bank caved. Hence (Slang), to retreat from a position; to give way; to yield in a disputed matter.

The net that is the goal in ice hockey

An underground enclosure with access from the surface of the ground or from the sea

A movable screen placed behind home base to catch balls during batting practice

Hollow out as if making a cave or opening;

Confine in a cage;

Explore natural caves