Etymology 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”).
1
To 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:
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
To progress with difficulty.
to wade through a dull book
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:
1 more example
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
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.
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:
4 more examples
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:
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
To enter recklessly.
to wade into a fight or a debate
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.QxR1940 January, "Cauliflower-Face Flaherty" (real identity unknown), “Muscle over Mind”, in Chess Review:
1 more example
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:
wade
noun
Etymology 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”).
1
An act of wading.
We had to be careful during our dangerous wade across the river.