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

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

Beginning in the late 19th century, California farmers regularly used their own equipment to dredge the delta channels.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 17, 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

Just five years ago, the same agency—then under former Gov. Andrew Cuomo—had denied the permit, citing the likelihood that it would dredge up toxic material.

From Barron's ● Nov. 7, 2025

Perhaps one of you, dear readers, with a legal turn of mind can dredge the appropriate clause from memory.

From "A Confederacy of Dunces" by John Kennedy Toole

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

When their father decides to defend the accused teen, it dredges up past traumas for Charlie and Sam as well as secrets Pikesville residents and the Quinn family have hidden for years.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 8, 2025

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

For decades, a little-known company now owned by a Goldman Sachs fund has been making millions of dollars from the unlikely dredges of American life: sewage sludge.

From New York Times ● Dec. 6, 2024

Anger stirs and wakes in her; it opens its mouth, and like a hotmouthed puppy, laps up the dredges of her shame.

From "The Bluest Eye" by Toni Morrison

Instead, firefighters and public works employees were covering the site inch by inch with soil dredged from a nearby site.

From Barron's ● Apr. 30, 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

"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

The recently released Epstein files have dredged up painful memories for Pozhidaeva.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 15, 2026

He’d had it dredged, and then built out the docks and the quay, and he’d had to mortgage the Crow Club to do it.

From "Six of Crows" by Leigh Bardugo

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

Pollution, and disturbance from anchoring, bottom trawling and dredging and coastal development have all contributed to its decline, the trust said.

From BBC ● Jun. 23, 2026

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

From BBC ● Jun. 3, 2026

In the old days, thanks to dredging, salmon still had access to deep channels with the cooler waters that they prefer and bass avoid.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 17, 2026

Over the North Sea in Britain’s Victorian empire, artists, writers and composers were dredging Albion’s Arthurian roots, too.

From "The Story of Music" by Howard Goodall

Related Words

• clean
• widen