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

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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. ); 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

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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

The dredge that caught it was sampling for small shelled animals known as brachiopods during a natural history expedition.

From Science Daily ● Oct. 30, 2026

Online critics were quick to dredge up comments by a former Argentinian leader as proof of the country’s bias.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 15, 2026

During one particularly tough patch that summer, the media managed to dredge up every stupid thing I had ever said publicly.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 5, 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

“I told the lawyer that Phil and I didn’t want you to dredge it all up again only to be called a liar.”

From "Three Little Words: A Memoir" by Ashley Rhodes-Courter

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

It's not clear if the mixing dredges up more haze from below or generates additional haze.

From Science Daily ● Nov. 26, 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

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

My subconscious had dredged up exactly the images I’d been trying so desperately to avoid.

From "Twilight" by Stephenie Meyer

But the boom in new products is also dredging up some uncomfortable memories: The previous peak for thematic ETF launches arrived in 2021, as the COVID-era market mania was reaching its crescendo.

From MarketWatch ● Oct. 24, 2026

Long Beach on Tuesday began dredging Alamitos Bay and is moving sand to the beach on the wave-battered Peninsula, using, essentially, a giant hose.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 24, 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

He knew its flaws, its many flaws, but believed that with a lot of deft dredging and sculpting, the park could be transformed into a landscape unlike any that had ever seated an exposition.

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

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