wade

• IPA^(key): /weɪd/

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• Rhymes: -eɪd
• Homophones: wayed, weighed, wheyed

From Middle English waden, from Old English wadan, from Proto-Germanic *wadaną, from Proto-Indo-European *weh₂dʰ- (“to go”). Cognates include German waten (“wade”) and Latin vādō (“go, walk; rush”) (whence English evade, invade, pervade).

wade (third-person singular simple present wades, present participle wading, simple past and past participle waded)

1. (intransitive) to walk through water or something that impedes progress.
   • 1667, John Milton, “Book II”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], […], OCLC 228722708; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, OCLC 230729554:

     So eagerly the fiend […] / With head, hands, wings, or feet, pursues his way, / And swims, or sinks, or wades, or creeps, or flies.

   • 1918 September–November, Edgar Rice Burroughs, “The Land That Time Forgot”, in The Blue Book Magazine, Chicago, Ill.: Story-press Corp., OCLC 18478577; republished as chapter VIII, in Hugo Gernsback, editor, Amazing Stories, volume 1, New York, N.Y.: Experimenter Publishing, 1927, OCLC 988016180:

     After 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 difficulty

   to wade through a dull book

   • 1697, Virgil, “Aeneis”, in John Dryden, transl., The Works of Virgil: Containing His Pastorals, Georgics, and Æneis. […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], OCLC 403869432:

     And wades through fumes, and gropes his way.

   • 1701, Charles Davenant, A Discourse on Grants and Resumptions and Essays on the Balance of Power:

     The king's admirable conduct has waded through all these difficulties.

3. (transitive) to walk through (water or similar impediment); to pass through by wading

   wading swamps and rivers

4. (intransitive) To enter recklessly.

   to wade into a fight or a debate

wade (plural wades)

1. An act of wading.

   We had to be careful during our dangerous wade across the river.

2. (colloquial) A ford; a place to cross a river.

• wade in
• wade through

wade (uncountable)

1. Obsolete form of woad.
   • 1707, J[ohn] Mortimer, The Whole Art of Husbandry; or, The Way of Managing and Improving of Land. […], 2nd edition, London: […] J[ohn] H[umphreys] for H[enry] Mortlock […], and J[onathan] Robinson […], published 1708, OCLC 13320837:

     Woad or Wade is a very rich Commodity

• wade in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913

• Dawe, Dewa, awed

• waarde, woarde (Moselle Franconian)
• waade (Ripuarian)

From Middle High German warden, northern variant of warten, from Old High German wartēn, from Proto-West Germanic *wardēn, from Proto-Germanic *wardāną. Compare Luxembourgish waarden, German warten, English ward, Yiddish וואַרטן‎ (vartn).

• IPA^(key): /ˈʋaː².də/

wade (third-person singular present waad, past tense wadet, present participle wadend or wadens, past participle jewaad)

1. (Kirchröadsj, intransitive) to wait (for) [+ óp (accusative)]

• aafwade
• ópwade
• verwade
• wadentere
• Wadoeng f

• IPA^(key): /ˈʋaː.də/
• Hyphenation: wa‧De
• Rhymes: -aːdə

From Middle Dutch wade, from Old Dutch *watho, from Proto-Germanic *waþwô.

Cognate with German Wade (“calf (of leg)”), Swedish vad (“calf (of leg)”) and Afrikaans waai (“popliteal”).

wade f (plural waden, diminutive waadje n)

1. popliteus

• Afrikaans: waai

wade f (plural waden, diminutive waadje n)

1. shroud

• lijkwade

• gewaad

From Middle Dutch wade, reformed from waet through influence of the collective gewade (modern gewaad). Further from Old Dutch *wāt, from Proto-Germanic *wēd-.

Cognate with Middle High German wāt, Old Saxon wād, Old English wǣd, Old Norse váð.

wade f (plural waden, diminutive waadje n)

1. type of trawl

• schrobnet

• sleepnet

wade

1. (archaic) singular present subjunctive of waden

wade

1. Alternative form of waden