wade

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“
Of Nature wade, and breake her earthly bars,

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Definitions (19)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (5)

  1. intransitive verb To walk in or through water or something else that similarly impedes normal movement.
  2. intransitive verb To make one's way arduously: waded through a boring report.
  3. transitive verb To cross or pass through (water, for example) with difficulty: wade a swift creek.
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Toggle Century definitions Century Dictionary (8)

Toggle GNU Webster definitions GNU Webster's 1913 (4)

Toggle WordNet definitions WordNet (2)

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Examples (50)

  • Occasionally the water would be too deep for us to wade, and we were obliged to put our weapons on the raft and swim. —  The Life of Hon. William F. Cody
  • The Sixties ran through America like a stream too broad to jump and too deep to wade, and it wasn't until their tenth high school reunion, in 1976, that all three were in Middletown at the same time (that they knew of). —  Omni: January 1995
  • "It's too deep to wade, and I don't like the look of those shark fins in the center Loan sharks," Kim agreed. —  Roc and a Hard Place
  • Many breaks in the mangroves, where you can wade or launch paddle craft.
  • Anglers fishing from kayaks and canoes are becoming much more commonplace and many are even getting out to wade-fish.
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Roget's II Roget's II: The New Thesaurus

Allen's Allen's Synonyms and Antonyms

Used in the same contextWord Family

wade:   waded
Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary. Copyright © 2003, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Etymologies (3)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. Middle English waden, from Old English wadan.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (2)

  1. from Middle English waden (preterit waded, earlier wod, past participle *waden), from Anglo-Saxon wadan (preterit wōd, plural wōdon, past participle waden), go, move, advance, trudge, also wade, = OFries. wada = Dutch waden = Old High German watan, Middle High German waten, German waten, wade, ford, = Icelandic vadha = Danish vade = Swedish vada, wade, = Latin vadere, go. Hence ult. waddle. From the L. vadere come English evade, invade, pervade, etc.
  2. from wade, v.; in def. 2 = wadde = Icelandic vad, a ford.
 

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/weɪd/
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