trudge
Americanverb (used without object)
verb (used with object)
noun
verb
-
(intr) to walk or plod heavily or wearily
-
(tr) to pass through or over by trudging
noun
Synonym Usage
See pace 1.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
trudgesimple
-
trudgessimple
-
have trudgedperfect
-
has trudgedperfect
-
am trudgingprogressive
-
are trudgingprogressive
-
is trudgingprogressive
-
have been trudgingperfect progressive
-
has been trudgingperfect progressive
Past
-
trudgedsimple
-
had trudgedperfect
-
was trudgingprogressive
-
were trudgingprogressive
-
had been trudgingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of trudge
First recorded in 1540–50; perhaps blend of tread and drudge
Explanation
To trudge is to walk in a heavy, exhausted way. Your grandpa probably tells you about how he used to trudge six miles uphill through a foot of snow in the brutal cold every morning just to get to school. Trudge is also a noun that means a difficult, labored walk. If you take a mile-long trudge through heavy snow or mud, your steps will be slower and it will require more effort to put one foot in front of the other. Need help remembering what trudge means? Say it out loud. Trudge rhymes with sludge — and walking through sludge, or thick muck, would cause you to trudge.
Vocabulary lists containing trudge
List 3
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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:
Life can be a trudge; what’s on display at the expo each year is a treat.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 18, 2026
Analysts have pointed to a few reasons they believe stocks are set to trudge higher into New Year’s Day.
From MarketWatch ● Dec. 21, 2025
The question now, as the Trojans trudge ahead without Watkins, is where USC might be next March, with Smith, Howell and Heckel presumably leading the way.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 1, 2025
Weary residents trudge through the streets as bulldozers try to scoop up the liquid mess.
From BBC ● Nov. 15, 2024
I got the paper sack in one hand, Mae Mobley’s hand in the other and we trudge across the steaming black lot.
From "The Help" by Kathryn Stockett
For now, Zombie LIV trudges on at a tournament in Mexico City that neither you or I are watching.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 17, 2026
“Benacerraf’s grand style,” he wrote, “captures the drama of subsistence in the face of nature,” adding that “the overwhelming beauty of the wide-open spaces contrasts with the workers’ burdened trudges through them.”
From New York Times ● Jun. 3, 2024
A disconsolate-looking Abdallah Sima trudges off - yet another injury problem for the Rangers manager.
From BBC ● Apr. 21, 2024
When I finally made it to the relative safety of the highway, I thought of the end of his story “The Flight Instructor,” in which the narrator trudges through a blizzard on foot:
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 22, 2023
Belle trudges, kicking up dust, snow, stomping over frozen dead grass.
From "Will’s Race for Home" by Jewell Parker Rhodes
Worn down, he muted the show, handed it over to another host and trudged up the stairs to his office to do the math manually.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 27, 2026
Hundreds of people trudged up the steep switchbacks in single file.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 18, 2026
And at the waterfall, snails that could easily be confused for pebbles slowly trudged along algae-covered rocks as Semple Run flowed by.
From Slate ● Apr. 27, 2026
In the fields beyond, a squash farmer trudged home, a sack slung over his shoulder heavy with his harvest.
From Barron's ● Apr. 22, 2026
Hour after hour, they trudged by, their heads down, their expressions sullen.
From "The Boy on the Wooden Box" by Leon Leyson
If you’re in line to watch three hours of Matt Damon trudging from Troy to Ithaca in The Odyssey, you might want to watch this at 3 p.m.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 19, 2026
I’m happy to share verbal news, but I didn’t want videos or photos of me trudging around.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 7, 2026
For all the times that feeding yourself feels like trudging through a fog of obligation, sometimes a craving arrives fully formed, as if it’s been plotting in the background.
From Salon ● Nov. 12, 2025
Johnson was dismissed in the 55th minute after clattering into Lopez, a needless challenge that initially earned a yellow card from Erik Lambrechts before VAR sent him trudging to the dressing room.
From Barron's ● Nov. 4, 2025
They would all die after trudging through lives in which they were neither happy nor unhappy.
From "Americanah" by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
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.
