Wade

Pronunciation

• IPA: /weɪd/
• Rhymes: -eɪd

From Old English wadan, from Proto-Germanic *wadanÄ…, from Proto-Indo-European *wedÊ°-, *wadÊ°- "to go". Cognates include Latin vadere "go, walk; rush" (whence English invade, evade).

Full definition of wade

Verb

1. (intransitive) to walk through water or something that impedes progress.
• MiltonSo eagerly the fiend ...
  With head, hands, wings, or feet, pursues his way,
  And swims, or sinks, or wades, or creeps, or flies.
• 1918, Edgar Rice Burroughs, The Land That Time Forgot (novel) Chapter VIIIAfter breakfast the men set out to hunt, while the women went to a large pool of warm water covered with a green scum and filled with billions of tadpoles. They waded in to where the water was about a foot deep and lay down in the mud. They remained there from one to two hours and then returned to the cliff.
2. (intransitive) to progress with difficultyto wade through a dull book
• DrydenAnd wades through fumes, and gropes his way.
• DavenantThe king's admirable conduct has waded through all these difficulties.
3. (transitive) to walk through (water or similar impediment); to pass through by wadingwading swamps and rivers
4. (intransitive) To enter recklessly.to wade into a fight or a debate

Noun

1. an act of wading

Related terms

• wade in
• wade into
• wade through

Noun

1. Obsolete form of woad

Anagrams

• awed
• Dewa