wade

• IPA^(key): /weɪd/

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• (Scotland) IPA^(key): /wed/
• Rhymes: -eɪd
• Homophones: wayed, weighed, wheyed (all not in Scotland)

From Middle English waden, from Old English wadan, from Proto-West Germanic *wadan, from Proto-Germanic *wadaną (“to go, pass through”), from Proto-Indo-European *weh₂dʰ- (“to go”). Cognates include Saterland Frisian waadje (“to wade”), West Frisian wâdzje (“to wade”), Dutch waden (“to wade”), German Low German waden (“to wade”), German waten (“to wade”), Danish vade (“to wade”), Swedish vada (“to wade”), Icelandic vaða (“to wade”), and Latin vādō (“go, walk; rush”).

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], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC:

     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; republished as chapter VIII, in Hugo Gernsback, editor, Amazing Stories, (please specify |part=I to III), New York, N.Y.: Experimenter Publishing, 1927, →OCLC:

     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:

     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. (of the sun or moon) To gleam intermittently through clouds or mist.
   • 1821, Allan Ramsay, The Gentle Shepherd, Etc, page 6:

     I saw my Meg come linking o'er the lee; I saw my Meg, but Maggy saw nae me: For yet the sun was wading through the mist, And she was close upon me ere she wist.

   • 1846, Anne Marsh-Caldwell, Father Darcy, page 247:

     ... the pale light of a crescent moon wading among the black and lowering clouds.

   • 1851, John Marius Wilson, The rural cyclopedia, or, A general dictionary of agriculture and of the arts ... necessary to the farmer ..., page 643:

     When sunshine has a scorching and enervating effect on man, during the greater part of the day, the next day will be cloudy and perhaps rainy. When the sun wades through clouds of any kind, rain may or may not follow;

   • 1865, The Fortnightly, page 596:

     […] the sun is "wading" when it is struggling through a heavy scud, and the moon is "sitting" when her dark side is turned towards the earth. The poets themselves may be in vain searched for a finer expression than the first.

   • 1868, Walter Scott, A Legend of Montrose, and the Black Dwarf, page 89:

     The moon, which had arisen during their conversation, was, in the phrase of that country, wading or struggling with clouds, and shed only a doubtful and occasional light.

   • 1911, Richard Blakeborough, Wit, Character, Folklore & Customs of the North Riding of Yorkshire, page 486:

     It's rain afoor meeght, t'sun waded sadly ez sha peeped ower Roseberry.

5. (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.

• St Nicholas at Wade
• waddle

• 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. […], London: […] J[ohn] H[umphreys] for H[enry] Mortlock […], and J[onathan] Robinson […], →OCLC:

     Woad or Wade is a very rich Commodity

• “wade”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• Joseph Wright, editor (1905), “WADE”, in The English Dialect Dictionary: […], volume VI (T–Z, Supplement, Bibliography and Grammar), London: Henry Frowde, […], publisher to the English Dialect Society, […]; New York, N.Y.: G[eorge] P[almer] Putnam’s Sons, →OCLC.
• “wade”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, launched 2000.

• 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) [with 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. (dated or formal) singular present subjunctive of waden

wade

1. alternative form of waden

• IPA^(key): /ˈwɑː.de/

wāde

1. dative singular of wād