waded; wading
1
: to step in or through a medium (such as water) offering more resistance than air
2
: to move or proceed with difficulty or labor
wade through the crowd
wade through all the evidence
3
: to set to work or attack with determination or vigor
—used with in or into
wade into a task
: to pass or cross by wading
: an act of wading
a wade in the brook
wad·able
variants
or wadeable
: capable of being waded
a wadable stream
Examples of wade in a Sentence
Verb
We waded into the ocean.
I jumped off the boat and waded back to shore.
Police waded into the crowd.
We waded through the crowded bus station.
It took several weeks to wade through all the evidence.
We waded our way through the crowd.
Recent Examples on the Web
Julia Preston,
The New York Review of Books,
4 July 2026
After an hour of searching, none were found and swimming was allowed to resume, though restricted to wading up to swimmers’ waists, the department said.
—
ABC News,
3 July 2026
Those who have an open wound should stay out of saltwater or brackish water, including wading at the beach.
—
Vanessa Etienne,
PEOPLE,
2 July 2026
Those who firmly believed in a right to wade, and those who wanted to codify a right to float into law.
—
Dac Collins,
Outdoor Life,
1 July 2026
See All Example Sentences for wade
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to
show current usage.
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Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors.
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Verb
El Paso sits in a verdant opening between arid mountains at the westernmost tip of Texas, at a place where the Rio Grande often runs shallow enough to wade across from Ciudad Juárez, its twin city in Mexico.
—
Julia Preston,
The New York Review of Books,
4 July 2026
After an hour of searching, none were found and swimming was allowed to resume, though restricted to wading up to swimmers’ waists, the department said.
—
ABC News,
3 July 2026
Those who have an open wound should stay out of saltwater or brackish water, including wading at the beach.
—
Vanessa Etienne,
PEOPLE,
2 July 2026
Those who firmly believed in a right to wade, and those who wanted to codify a right to float into law.
—
Dac Collins,
Outdoor Life,
1 July 2026
See All Example Sentences for wade
Cite this Entry
“Wade.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/wade. Accessed 7 Jul. 2026.
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