wade

¹

[weyd]

verb (used without object)

waded, wading 

1. to walk in water, when partially immersed.

   He wasn't swimming, he was wading.

2. to play in water.

   The children were wading in the pool most of the afternoon.

3. to walk through water, snow, sand, or any other substance that impedes free motion or offers resistance to movement.

   to wade through the mud.

4. to make one's way slowly or laboriously (often followed bythrough ).

   to wade through a dull book.

   Synonyms: work, plow, plod, toil, labor

5. Obsolete.,  to go or proceed.

verb (used with object)

waded, wading 

1. to pass through or cross by wading; ford.

   to wade a stream.

noun

1. an act or instance of wading.

   We went for a wade in the shallows.

verb phrase

1. wade in / into

   1. to begin energetically.

   2. to attack strongly.

      to wade into a thoughtless child; to wade into a mob of rioters.

Wade

²

[weyd]

noun

1. Benjamin Franklin, 1800–78, U.S. lawyer and antislavery politician.

2. a male given name.

wade

¹

/ weɪd /

verb

1. to walk with the feet immersed in (water, a stream, etc)

   the girls waded the river at the ford

2. to proceed with difficulty

   to wade through a book

3. (intr; foll by in or into) to attack energetically

noun

1. the act or an instance of wading

Wade

²

/ weɪd /

noun

1. ( Sarah ) Virginia. born 1945, English tennis player; won three Grand Slam singles titles: US Open (1968), Australian Open (1972), and Wimbledon (1977)

Other Word Forms

• unwaded adjective
• unwading adjective
• wadable adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of wade¹

before 900; Middle English waden to go, wade, Old English wadan to go; cognate with German waten, Old Norse vatha; akin to Old English wæd ford, sea, Latin vadum shoal, ford, vādere to go, rush

Word History and Origins

Origin of wade¹

Old English wadan; related to Old Frisian wada, Old High German watan, Old Norse vatha, Latin vadum _ford

Example Sentences

At age 25, Birutė Galdikas, the Canadian anthropologist, was wading through swamps riddled with parasites and leeches trying to catch a glimpse of orangutans, or, as she describes them, “survivors of Eden.”

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

Several French security sources have told us that getting the police to stop the boats by wading into the sea was never even a remote possibility.

Read more on BBC

The beauty of the film is that it is from the perspective of a family, two parents and two children, gingerly wading through the past and picking up keepsakes to bring.

Read more on Salon

Previously, beneficiaries had to wade through listings on dozens of websites.

Read more on MarketWatch

Both the actor and the character were comfortable being complicated individuals and wading through the complexities around them — because after all, problems in life and in good fiction are rarely simple.

Read more on Los Angeles Times

Related Words

• bathe 
• paddle 
• splash 
• stumble 
• trek