dredge

¹ American  

[drej] / drɛdʒ /

noun

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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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. ); 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

Example Sentences

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

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

Diggers have been deployed to dredge a channel back into deeper waters.

From BBC

The demand for actors to reprise their most famous roles for the sake of dredging whatever value — read: money — is left from the property has to die, along with this reboot.

From Salon

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

Related Words

• clean
• widen