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.

---

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.

---

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

---

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

---

Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• dredges
  plural

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

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

Free to set his dredge For trade beyond Chez Maman Now that he’s shucked off.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 9, 2026

This is a film that serves a purpose, and Jones’ amiable writing and Aramayo’s engaging performance dredge up just enough sentimentality while keeping the movie from seeming overly instructive.

From Salon ● Apr. 26, 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

That was their goal from the start, they just needed time to dredge up a pretext.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 26, 2025

“My husband was an important man, and I am pleased that you remember his films with such fondness, but he’s become so fragile. It’s not a good idea to dredge up the past for him.”

From "The Invention of Hugo Cabret" by Brian Selznick

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

Such was the lack of food, another crewmate told the court that they had resorted to eating fish and octopus and fish caught by the dredges to survive.

From BBC ● Jun. 8, 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

She dredges more of the chicken on a plate of flour.

From "The Namesake" by Jhumpa Lahiri

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

"Not only were oysters harvested for food from the earliest days of colonization, but the reefs themselves were dredged and the shells crushed and burned to make lime for cement and mortar," she says.

From Science Daily ● Apr. 6, 2026

He once dredged up 17 rings in a single day by sweeping the ocean bottom in a spot where tourists, well into their tequila sunrises, routinely launch themselves off catamarans, their fingers slick with sunscreen.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 24, 2026

In an interview with an NPR podcast earlier this month she said the latest release of files dredged up "painful times in my marriage".

From BBC ● Feb. 25, 2026

Looking for something that’s been thrown away as useless, but could still be dredged up and reclaimed.

From "Cat's Eye" by Margaret Atwood

"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

Husseini said this was usually a result of poor dredging: "The plants in the water are not removed from the root."

From BBC ● Jul. 20, 2026

The extraordinary speed of this dredging operation is probably some kind of world record.

From BBC ● Jun. 3, 2026

Compared with other projects to increase California’s supply of freshwater, dredging is a bargain.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 17, 2026

Irian wrinkled her forehead, dredging through her stock of learning.

From "Impossible Creatures" by Katherine Rundell

Related Words

• clean
• widen