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.
verb (used with object),dredged,dredg·ing.
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.
verb (used without object),dredged,dredg·ing.
to use a dredge.
Verb Phrases
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.
Origin of dredge
1
1425–75;late Middle English (Scots) dreg-,Old English*drecg(e); see dray, draw
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.
