wade

present singular third person wades · participle present wading · participle past waded · past waded

1. intransitiveTo walk through water or something that impedes progress.

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

   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

   1 more example

   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.

   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

2. intransitiveTo progress with difficulty.

   to wade through a dull book

   2 more examples

   And wades through fumes, and gropes his way.

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

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

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

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

   wading swamps and rivers

4. To gleam intermittently through clouds or mist.

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

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

   5 more examples

   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.

   1821, Allan Ramsay, The Gentle Shepherd, Etc, page 6

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

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

   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;

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

   […] 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.

   1865, The Fortnightly, page 596

   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.

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

5. intransitiveTo enter recklessly.

   to wade into a fight or a debate

   2 more examples

   The champ [Alekhine] seems to reel and stagger helplessly. It's an old gag because a blind man can see he ain't glassy-eyed a-tall—but Rodzinsky wades in. 10.QxR

   1940 January, "Cauliflower-Face Flaherty" (real identity unknown), “Muscle over Mind”, in Chess Review

   Thailand’s Queen Mother Sirikit, who brought glamour to a postwar revival in the country’s monarchy and who, in later years, would occasionally wade into politics, has died aged 93 […]

   2025 October 25, Reuters, “Thailand’s Queen Mother Sirikit dies at 93 after more than a decade out of the public eye”, in The Guardian

plural wades

1. An act of wading.

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

2. colloquialA ford; a place to cross a river.

1. obsoleteuncountableObsolete form of woad.

   Woad or Wade is a very rich Commodity

   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

alternative Waide

1. A topographic surname from Old English.
2. A male given name transferred from the surname.

   In due time, Charles' son was born and, because it was fashionable to name boys after their fathers' commanding officers, he was called Wade Hampton Hamilton.

   1936 June 30, Margaret Mitchell, chapter VII, in Gone with the Wind, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company, →OCLC

3. A system of romanization for the Chinese language based on 19th-century Pekingese pronunciation, worked out by Thomas Wade.

   Synonyms: romanization system

4. A number of places in the United States:
   1. A town in Aroostook County, Maine.
   2. A census-designated place in Jackson County, Mississippi.
   3. A town in Cumberland County, North Carolina.
   4. An unincorporated community in Washington County, Ohio.
   5. Two townships in Illinois, in Clinton County and Jasper County.