wade Meaning, Definition & Usage

  1. noun English tennis player who won many women's singles titles (born in 1945)
    Virginia Wade.
  2. verb walk (through relatively shallow water)
    • Can we wade across the river to the other side?
    • Wade the pond

WordNet

Wade noun
Definitions
  1. Woad. Obs. Mortimer.
Wade intransitive verb
Etymology
OE. waden to wade, to go, AS. wadan; akin to OFries. wada, D. waden, OHG. watan, Icel. vaa, Sw. vada, Dan. vade, L. vadere to go, walk, vadum a ford. Cf. Evade, Invade, Pervade, Waddle.
Wordforms
imperfect & past participle Waded; present participle & verbal noun Wading
Definitions
  1. To go; to move forward. Obs.
    When might is joined unto cruelty, Alas, too deep will the venom wade. Chaucer.
    Forbear, and wade no further in this speech. Old Play.
  2. To walk in a substance that yields to the feet; to move, sinking at each step, as in water, mud, sand, etc.
    So eagerly the fiend . . . With head, hands, wings, or feet, pursues his way, And swims, or sinks, or wades, or creeps, or flies. Milton.
  3. Hence, to move with difficulty or labor; to proceed lowly among objects or circumstances that constantly inder or embarrass; as, to wade through a dull book.
    And wades through fumes, and gropes his way. Dryden.
    The king's admirable conduct has waded through all these difficulties. Davenant.
Wade transitive verb
Definitions
  1. To pass or cross by wading; as, he waded he rivers and swamps.
Wade noun
Definitions
  1. The act of wading. Colloq.

Webster 1913