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)
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sledges,
present (3rd person singular)
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sledged,
past participle, past
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sledging
present participle
verb (used without object)
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sledges,
present (3rd person singular)
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sledged,
past participle, past
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sledging
present participle
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
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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sledgesimple
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sledgessimple
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have sledgedperfect
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has sledgedperfect
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am sledgingprogressive
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are sledgingprogressive
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is sledgingprogressive
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have been sledgingperfect progressive
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has been sledgingperfect progressive
Past
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sledgedsimple
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had sledgedperfect
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was sledgingprogressive
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were sledgingprogressive
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had been sledgingperfect progressive
Future
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.
See Examples For:
He later documented his journeys through India on elephant-back and across Siberia by sledge.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 7, 2025
Carrying sledge hammers, scientists hiked to the impact site in South Africa to chisel off chunks of rock to understand the crash.
From BBC ● Oct. 21, 2024
Tourists fill its hotels to ski, sledge, and trek the Himalayan landscape.
From Seattle Times ● Jan. 5, 2024
Grainy footage of a game of ice sledge hockey at the Paralympics filled the screen.
From BBC ● Aug. 30, 2023
And the tracks of Lord Asriel’s sledge ran to the brink...and on, across a bridge of compacted snow.
From "The Golden Compass" by Philip Pullman
Mum Esther watched on as Charlotte, two, Daniel, six, and nine-year-old Iona joyfully sledged down a slope.
From BBC ● Jan. 9, 2026
Never one to take a backward step, Gill sledged James Anderson and Jonny Bairstow in a Test in India, while umpires have felt his presence when in charge at the IPL.
From BBC ● Jun. 16, 2025
It is a noble intention but I prefer the approach employed by Viv Richards when he was sledged by the Glamorgan fast bowler Greg Thomas.
From The Guardian ● Jul. 28, 2019
He bowled the world’s highest, silliest bouncer and sledged it up loads while bowling at 70mph.
From The Guardian ● Aug. 7, 2015
More precious foodstores—cases of nuts, boxes of sugar, crates of barley, flour, and jam—were sledged back to the new camp, dubbed Ocean Camp by the men.
From "Shipwreck at the Bottom of the World" by Jennifer Armstrong
There was no aggression thrown at them, no sledging, nothing to throw them off their stride.
From BBC ● Aug. 2, 2025
The mention of snow in our forecasts always pricks people ears up, whether it is the prospect of sledging and snowball fights, or the threat of travel disruption and school closures.
From BBC ● Dec. 24, 2024
When they arrived the resort "looked lovely", Mrs O'Neil said, and the family enjoyed their first afternoon there doing some sledging, snowball fights and snow angels.
From BBC ● Dec. 19, 2024
The call-outs included teams helping with a potential cardiac arrest, a suspected stroke and a suspected spinal injury caused from a sledging accident.
From BBC ● Dec. 4, 2023
It was hard sledging in that much-folded land, with more than my weight to pull, but the snow was thick and already growing firm, and I was in dothe.
From "The Left Hand of Darkness" by Ursula K. Le Guin
He was best known for his love of the husky dogs used to pull sledges around the island, and he raised two litters of dogs.
From BBC ● Aug. 11, 2025
You could get by gondola up to the mouth of the Euclid trail, where the donkey trolleys dragged the sledges up toward Baldy.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 10, 2025
It’s generally believed that the Egyptians moved massive stone blocks to the heights along large ramps, greased by water or wet clay, using a system of sledges, ropes, rollers, and levers.
From National Geographic ● Dec. 20, 2023
Used only in Antarctica, the fuel is purchased and transported either via cargo plane or by Caterpillars that drive 1,100 miles from McMurdo, towing giant gut sacks of gas on giant sledges.
From Salon ● May 29, 2023
Why were there no pictures of his father in this part of the world or that, riding with frost-bearded men on Arctic sledges or examining creeper-covered ruins in the jungle?
From "The Subtle Knife" by Philip Pullman
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.
