trudge
Americanverb (used without object)
verb (used with object)
noun
verb
-
(intr) to walk or plod heavily or wearily
-
(tr) to pass through or over by trudging
noun
Synonym Usage
See pace 1.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
trudgesimple
-
trudgessimple
-
have trudgedperfect
-
has trudgedperfect
-
am trudgingprogressive
-
are trudgingprogressive
-
is trudgingprogressive
-
have been trudgingperfect progressive
-
has been trudgingperfect progressive
Past
-
trudgedsimple
-
had trudgedperfect
-
was trudgingprogressive
-
were trudgingprogressive
-
had been trudgingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of trudge
First recorded in 1540–50; perhaps blend of tread and drudge
Explanation
To trudge is to walk in a heavy, exhausted way. Your grandpa probably tells you about how he used to trudge six miles uphill through a foot of snow in the brutal cold every morning just to get to school. Trudge is also a noun that means a difficult, labored walk. If you take a mile-long trudge through heavy snow or mud, your steps will be slower and it will require more effort to put one foot in front of the other. Need help remembering what trudge means? Say it out loud. Trudge rhymes with sludge — and walking through sludge, or thick muck, would cause you to trudge.
Vocabulary lists containing trudge
List 3
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
We trudge through entire chapters bearing names like “The Sea and the Desert” or “The Beach Again” without meeting another living soul.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 29, 2026
The job market continues to trudge along with little hiring and little firing.
From MarketWatch ● Apr. 3, 2026
On the now daily trudge to work through the snow and ice, I came across a mum and daughter scraping their car clear of heavy snow.
From BBC ● Jan. 9, 2026
“Although almost all of those still kind of trudge along in some state or another.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 26, 2025
Katherine gives me a grateful look and I get up and trudge once more to the door.
From "Dread Nation" by Justina Ireland
For now, Zombie LIV trudges on at a tournament in Mexico City that neither you or I are watching.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 17, 2026
As the film trudges from his hospice bed to his youth, we’ll come to see that the doomed townsfolk have the same faces and mannerisms of people Chuck knew as a child.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 5, 2025
A disconsolate-looking Abdallah Sima trudges off - yet another injury problem for the Rangers manager.
From BBC ● Apr. 21, 2024
As she trudges along, Annis recalls a lesson from her mother: “The ancestors come if you call them.”
From Seattle Times ● Oct. 30, 2023
And the moon, dragged along, trudges around us at a little more than half a mile per second.
From "100 Sideways Miles" by Andrew Smith
Worn down, he muted the show, handed it over to another host and trudged up the stairs to his office to do the math manually.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 27, 2026
Two elephants trudged across a makeshift football field at Mexico's Guadalajara Zoo in a whacky attempt to predict the score of the 2026 World Cup's opening game.
From Barron's ● Jun. 6, 2026
Earlier this year, 27,000 runners trudged through the city on a course that wound from Dodger Stadium to Century City.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 30, 2026
Only a few hundred dispirited Chelsea fans were still inside Wembley as Cole Palmer and Co trudged up the steps to collect their losers' medals following their FA Cup final defeat by Manchester City.
From BBC ● May 16, 2026
"I can't believe it," said Specimen, as they trudged home that afternoon.
From "Jeremy Thatcher, Dragon Hatcher" by Bruce Coville
He is a solitary, trudging in his galoshes through the snows of West Hartford, Conn., on his way to work.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 16, 2026
Another moment without Sally by his side is a moment spent trudging through a world, lost in its darkness.
From Salon ● Dec. 17, 2025
Johnson was dismissed in the 55th minute after clattering into Lopez, a needless challenge that initially earned a yellow card from Erik Lambrechts before VAR sent him trudging to the dressing room.
From Barron's ● Nov. 4, 2025
Some told the BBC they battled hypothermia despite being dressed warmly while trudging along deep snow.
From BBC ● Oct. 11, 2025
We were trudging home after getting off the school bus.
From "October Sky" by Homer Hickam
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
