sledge
1 Americannoun
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a vehicle of various forms, mounted on runners and often drawn by draft animals, used for traveling or for conveying loads over snow, ice, rough ground, etc.
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a sled.
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British. a sleigh.
verb (used with or without object)
verb (used without object)
noun
noun
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Also called: sleigh. a vehicle mounted on runners, drawn by horses or dogs, for transporting people or goods, esp over snow
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a light wooden frame used, esp by children, for sliding over snow; toboggan
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a farm vehicle mounted on runners, for use on rough or muddy ground
verb
verb
noun
noun
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of sledge1
1595–1605; < dialectal Dutch sleeds, derivative of slede sled; cf. sleigh
Origin of sledge2
before 1000; Middle English slegge, Old English slecg; cognate with Dutch slegge, Old Norse sleggja; akin to slay
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
He later documented his journeys through India on elephant-back and across Siberia by sledge.
From The Wall Street Journal • Nov. 7, 2025
"The sledge has got back. We heard the sad details. Jeff has badly bitten frostbitten hands. We are not taking any more risks to recover," the report reads the day after the accident.
From BBC • Aug. 11, 2025
Using sledge hammers, they collected hundreds of kilograms of rock and took them back to labs for analysis.
From BBC • Oct. 21, 2024
Tourists fill its hotels to ski, sledge, and trek the Himalayan landscape.
From Seattle Times • Jan. 5, 2024
Up close I saw what I had not seen from the car: The man had a scar on his right cheek, as though he had been hit in the face with a sledge.
From "Invisible Man" by Ralph Ellison
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
