wade

[weyd] /weɪd/
verb (used without object), waded, wading.
1.
to walk in water, when partially immersed:
He wasn't swimming, he was wading.
2.
to play in water:
The children were wading in the pool most of the afternoon.
3.
to walk through water, snow, sand, or any other substance that impedes free motion or offers resistance to movement:
to wade through the mud.
4.
to make one's way slowly or laboriously (often followed by through):
to wade through a dull book.
5.
Obsolete. to go or proceed.
verb (used with object), waded, wading.
6.
to pass through or cross by wading; ford:
to wade a stream.
noun
7.
an act or instance of wading:
We went for a wade in the shallows.
Verb phrases
8.
wade in/into,
  1. to begin energetically.
  2. to attack strongly:
    to wade into a thoughtless child; to wade into a mob of rioters.
Origin
before 900; Middle English waden to go, wade, Old English wadan to go; cognate with German waten, Old Norse vatha; akin to Old English wæd ford, sea, Latin vadum shoal, ford, vādere to go, rush
Related forms
unwaded, adjective
unwading, adjective
Synonyms
4. labor, toil, plod, plow, work.

Wade

[weyd] /weɪd/
noun
1.
Benjamin Franklin, 1800–78, U.S. lawyer and antislavery politician.
2.
a male given name.
Examples from the web for wade
  • When rains flooded the streets, many employees chose to stay the night rather than wade through the filthy water.
  • Freshmen in college wade through a blizzard of calculus, physics and chemistry in lecture halls with hundreds of other students.
  • Whole families grab homemade nets of mosquito netting or cheesecloth and wade into the sea.
  • We remove our shoes, roll up our trousers and nervously wade knee-deep in the toxic stream.
  • wade considered this question explicitly and answered no.
  • Come fall, when the mosquitoes and temperatures subside, sloggers wade in.
  • wade decision was handed down, the court based its deliberations on science.
  • Wild ducks jet up and down the blue waters in spring and autumn, and fly fishermen wade the riffles, casting leisurely.
  • Welcome this trio of flamingos to wade across your desktop.
  • wade establishes a fundamental right of privacy between a doctor and a patient.
British Dictionary definitions for wade

wade

/weɪd/
verb
1.
to walk with the feet immersed in (water, a stream, etc): the girls waded the river at the ford
2.
(intransitive) often foll by through. to proceed with difficulty: to wade through a book
3.
(intransitive; foll by in or into) to attack energetically
noun
4.
the act or an instance of wading
Derived Forms
wadable, wadeable, adjective
Word Origin
Old English wadan; related to Old Frisian wada, Old High German watan, Old Norse vatha, Latin vadumford

Wade

/weɪd/
noun
1.
(Sarah) Virginia. born 1945, English tennis player; won three Grand Slam singles titles: US Open (1968), Australian Open (1972), and Wimbledon (1977)
Word Origin and History for wade
v.

Old English wadan "to go forward, proceed," in poetic use only, except as oferwaden "wade across," from Proto-Germanic *wadan (cf. Old Norse vaða, Danish vade, Old Frisian wada, Dutch waden, Old High German watan, German waten "to wade"), from PIE root *wadh- "to go," found only in Germanic and Latin (cf. Latin vadere "to go," vadum "shoal, ford," vadare "to wade"). Italian guado, French gué "ford" are Germanic loan-words.

Specifically of walking into water from c.1200. Originally a strong verb (past tense wod, past participle wad); weak since 16c. Figurative sense of "to go into" (action, battle, etc.) is recorded from late 14c. Related: Waded; wading.