dredge

¹ American  

[drej] / drɛdʒ /

noun

• dredges
  plural

1. Also called dredging machine. any of various powerful machines for dredging up or removing earth, as from the bottom of a river, by means of a scoop, a series of buckets, a suction pipe, or the like.

2. a barge on which such a machine is mounted.

3. a dragnet or other contrivance for gathering material or objects from the bottom of a river, bay, etc.

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verb (used with object)

dredged, dredging

1. to clear out with a dredge; remove sand, silt, mud, etc., from the bottom of.

2. to take, catch, or gather with a dredge; obtain or remove by a dredge.

verb (used without object)

dredged, dredging

1. to use a dredge.

verb phrase

1. dredge up

   1. to unearth or bring to notice.

      We dredged up some old toys from the bottom of the trunk.

   2. to locate and reveal by painstaking investigation or search.

      Biographers excel at dredging up little known facts.

dredge ² American  

[drej] / drɛdʒ /

verb (used with object)

Cooking.

dredged, dredging

1. to sprinkle or coat with some powdered substance, especially flour.

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dredge ¹ British  

/ drɛdʒ /

noun

1. Also called: dredger. a machine, in the form of a bucket ladder, grab, or suction device, used to remove material from a riverbed, channel, etc

2. another name for dredger 1

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verb

1. to remove (material) from a riverbed, channel, etc, by means of a dredge

2. (tr) to search for (a submerged object) with or as if with a dredge; drag

dredge ² British  

/ drɛdʒ /

verb

1. to sprinkle or coat (food) with flour, sugar, etc

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• dredges
  plural

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Etymology

Origin of dredge¹

First recorded in 1425–75; late Middle English ( Scots ) dreg, as in dreg-boat “dredge boat,” probably an irregular formation of Old English dragan draw ( def. ); see also dray ( def. )

Origin of dredge²

First recorded in 1590–1600; verb use of dredge (now obsolete or dialectal) “mixture of grains,” from late Middle English drag(g)e, dreg(g)e, draget(e), apparently to be identified with Middle English drag(g)e, dragie “sweet sauce, confection; mixture of grains, mix or company of people,” from Anglo-French drag(g)é, dragee, from Old French dragie, dragé; possibly related to dragée

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Explanation

When a harbor becomes filled with silt, you dredge it to make it navigable again. You scoop out the mud with a big shovel, which is also called a dredge, and make a channel deep enough for ships. Dredges have been at work in the Hudson River for years getting rid of industrial toxins, dredging up the contaminated sediment and loading it into barges to be carried away. If your car rolled into a lake by mistake, you might be able to hire a dredge that can be dragged across the bottom of the lake to recover things that have fallen in. You can dredge up memories, too, which usually entails reminding people of unpleasant ones they’d rather forget.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

dredge dredges dredged dredging

There is no shortage of ideas to dredge from this truth, about how we use art to cope, sometimes to our own detriment.

From Salon ● Oct. 5, 2026

Beginning in the late 19th century, California farmers regularly used their own equipment to dredge the delta channels.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 17, 2026

Rescue teams from Thursday used earth moving equipment on a pontoon to dredge a channel through the sand to allow the animal to escape.

From Barron's ● Mar. 27, 2026

Eventually, two diggers were deployed on Thursday to dredge a channel for the whale to swim into deeper water, and rescue teams worked late into the day under floodlights to save it.

From BBC ● Mar. 27, 2026

I say, with as much venom as I can dredge up.

From "Cat's Eye" by Margaret Atwood

Some of the scenes the author dredges up from his deep trawl through Stasi archives are bizarre.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 12, 2026

But, as big moves so often do, the journey dredges up long-buried feelings of discontent and malaise between the couple.

From Salon ● Jul. 30, 2025

Sometimes what’s left behind are the dredges of history and time, which Mason resurrects onstage.

From Los Angeles Times ● May 15, 2025

Why must every group have a prodigal troublemaker whose return dredges up these old memories?

From New York Times ● May 16, 2024

Anger stirs and wakes in her; it opens its mouth, and like a hotmouthed puppy, laps up the dredges of her shame.

From "The Bluest Eye" by Toni Morrison

And, because phosphate is a low-value commodity, vast quantities must be dredged to make operations viable, she said.

From Barron's ● Aug. 25, 2026

“As in Basel, shallow-water sections in Germany should also be dredged, particularly in the German Kaub area,” Minsch says, referring to the pinch point in the Rhine Valley in northwestern Germany.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 19, 2026

Millions of tonnes of sand have been dredged from the sea bed to create solid land.

From BBC ● Jun. 3, 2026

On April 19, Enchassi felt shaken by the bomb that had just exploded in Oklahoma City, and by the memories it dredged up of his childhood in Lebanon.

From Slate ● Apr. 19, 2026

Ralph dredged in his fading knowledge of the world.

From "Lord of the Flies" by William Golding

The effect is something like uncanny sketch comedy, dredging laughs from Hansen’s stilted expressions and intense demeanor, regardless of a scene’s emotional gravity.

From Salon ● Sep. 26, 2026

I spent fruitless hours testing my employer’s patience, neglecting my more immediate work while dredging up zero-retweet Twitter posts from the early 2010s.

From Slate ● Sep. 22, 2026

These projects should increase demand for dredging engineering services and vessel utilization, supporting the marine services group’s businesses over the longer term.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 4, 2026

"We are making efforts to maintain a navigable channel as much as possible -- albeit a narrower one -- so that navigation is not completely blocked," he added of the administration's dredging operations.

From Barron's ● Jul. 30, 2026

He put his mind to remembering the day in Washington, working on details of pictures and statues, dredging up the sound of Miss Edmunds’ voice, recalling his own exact words and her exact answers.

From "Bridge to Terabithia" by Katherine Paterson

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Related Words

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