Definition

Verb: 1. To walk through water or another substance that impedes movement: To walk with effort through something that offers resistance, such as water, mud, or snow, typically when it is not deep enough to swim in. 2. To proceed with difficulty or laborious effort: To advance slowly or with great effort through a task, situation, or a large amount of material.

Usage and Examples

• Verb (literal): Describes the physical act of walking through shallow water or a similar substance.
  • The children love to wade in the stream on hot days.
  • We had to wade across the flooded road to reach the car.
• Verb (figurative): Describes dealing with something difficult, tedious, or voluminous.
  • I had to wade through hundreds of applications to find a suitable candidate.
  • She waded into the complex legal documents, determined to understand them.

Advanced Usage

• "to wade in": To enter a situation, often a discussion or conflict, forcefully or without hesitation.
  • As the argument grew louder, he decided to wade in and try to calm everyone down.
• "to wade through": To deal with or read something that is long, difficult, or boring. This is the most common figurative use.
  • Researchers must wade through vast amounts of data to find relevant patterns.

Variants and Related Words

• Wader (noun): A person or bird that wades. Also refers to high waterproof boots used for wading.
  • Herons are long-legged waders.
  • He put on his waders before entering the river to fish.

Synonyms

• Ford (verb): To cross a river or stream at a shallow point.
• Slog (verb): To walk or progress with great effort through mud or a difficult task.
• Plod (verb): To walk slowly with heavy steps, especially because of exhaustion or difficult conditions.

Related Phrasal Verbs

• Wade in: To become involved in something, especially a discussion or fight, in a forceful way.
  • He didn't hesitate to wade in and defend his colleague's opinion.
• Wade into: To start to deal with or become involved in something with energy, often something difficult or contentious.
  • The new manager waded into the project's problems immediately.
• Wade through: To spend a lot of time and effort dealing with something tedious or a large quantity of material.
  • I'm still wading through all the paperwork from the meeting.

Noun

1. English tennis player who won many women's singles titles (born in 1945)

Verb

1. walk (through relatively shallow water)
   • Can we wade across the river to the other side?
   • Wade the pond