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

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

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

The state power company was working to restore electricity and authorities promised to help with home repairs and to dredge flooded streets.

From Barron's ● Sep. 29, 2026

Divers’ primary tool was a vacuum-like system called a dredge, which sucked up sediment from inside the wreck and deposited it into baskets on the sea floor.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 30, 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

But she would smile, and dredge up something nice to say.

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

Bono dredges up Paul Weller's scathing critique of their band.

From BBC ● May 22, 2025

In a statement, USC said, “This lawsuit, which dredges up events that occurred as many as 10 years ago, has no legal merit.”

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 20, 2024

He concentrated on the fair’s central lagoon, which his dredges soon would begin carving from the Jackson Park shore.

From "The Devil in the White City" by Erik Larson

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

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

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

These were mostly my mom’s books, but Dad opened them every once in a while to learn about the things he dredged up while scuba diving.

From "The Line Tender" by Kate Allen

Locals say dredging for the port already damaged coral reefs, resulting in a decline in marine life and tourist interest at a popular snorkeling site.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 3, 2026

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

An environmental impact assessment found that the dredging in nearby Malakal Harbour -- expected to start this year -- will cause the loss of 4.26 hectares of coral, impacting endangered turtles, fish and dugong.

From Barron's ● Sep. 16, 2026

“Big Dub and his family were gone, and they weren’t coming back. What was the point in dredging up the past?”

From "The Parker Inheritance" by Varian Johnson

Related Words

• clean
• widen