dredge1
[drej]
- 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.
- a barge on which such a machine is mounted.
- a dragnet or other contrivance for gathering material or objects from the bottom of a river, bay, etc.
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- to clear out with a dredge; remove sand, silt, mud, etc., from the bottom of.
- to take, catch, or gather with a dredge; obtain or remove by a dredge.
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- to use a dredge.
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- dredge up,
- to unearth or bring to notice: We dredged up some old toys from the bottom of the trunk.
- to locate and reveal by painstaking investigation or search: Biographers excel at dredging up little known facts.
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Origin of dredge1
dredge2
[drej]
- to sprinkle or coat with some powdered substance, especially flour.
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Origin of dredge2
1590–1600; v. use of dredge (now obsolete or dial.) mixture of grains, late Middle English dragge, dregge, apparently to be identified with Middle English drag(g)e, dragie (disyllabic) sweetmeat, confection < Anglo-French drag(g)é, dragee, Old French (see dragée); compare similar dual sense of Medieval Latin dragētum, dragium
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for dredge
Contemporary Examples
Remove some shallots from the buttermilk and dredge in the seasoned flour mixture.
They get $8 million to dredge the channel for pleasure boats to sail to Catalina Island.
Let me go ahead and dredge this up before someone else does.
Perhaps some of them might dredge up some outrage over the message behind what Karzai did to the United States yesterday.
This whole project could be fruitful and dredge up even more dirt on Nixon.
President Obama Eyes New Oval Office While the White House Undergoes RenovationsLauren Ashburn
February 3, 2013
Historical Examples
Dredge the fruits and nuts with flour and fold them into the mixture.
Woman's Institute Library of Cookery, Vol. 4Woman's Institute of Domestic Arts and Sciences
Brush with milk, dredge with sugar, and bake for about 1/2 hour.
Woman's Institute Library of Cookery, Vol. 4Woman's Institute of Domestic Arts and Sciences
Having cleaned the fish, and cut off the fins, dredge them with flour.
Directions for Cookery, in its Various BranchesEliza Leslie
After a while turn them, and salt and dredge the other side.
Directions for Cookery, in its Various BranchesEliza Leslie
Then wipe the pieces, season them with pepper and salt, and dredge them with flour.
Directions for Cookery, in its Various BranchesEliza Leslie
dredge1
- 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
- another name for dredger 1 (def. 1)
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- to remove (material) from a riverbed, channel, etc, by means of a dredge
- (tr) to search for (a submerged object) with or as if with a dredge; drag
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Word Origin
C16: perhaps ultimately from Old English dragan to draw; see drag
dredge2
- to sprinkle or coat (food) with flour, sugar, etc
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Word Origin
C16: from Old French dragie, perhaps from Latin tragēmata spices, from Greek
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
Word Origin and History for dredge
n.
late 15c., in Scottish dreg-boat "boat for dredging," perhaps ultimately from root of drag (possibly via Middle Dutch dregghe "drag-net"). The verb is attested from c.1500 in Scottish. Related: Dredged; dredging.
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper