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dredge 1 (drĕj)
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n.
1. Any of various machines equipped with scooping or suction devices and used to deepen harbors and waterways and in underwater mining.
2. Nautical A boat or barge equipped with a dredge.
3. An implement consisting of a net on a frame, used for gathering shellfish.
v. dredged, dredg·ing, dredg·es
v. tr.
1. To clean, deepen, or widen with a dredge.
2. To bring up with a dredge: dredged up the silt.
3. To come up with; unearth: dredged up bitter memories.
v. intr.
To use a dredge: dredging for alluvial gold.
[Middle English dreg- (in dreg-boat, boat for dredging); akin to Old English dragan, to draw.]
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dredge1
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition copyright ©2022 by HarperCollins Publishers. All rights reserved.
 
dredge 2 (drĕj)
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tr.v. dredged, dredg·ing, dredg·es
To coat (food) by sprinkling with a powder, such as flour or sugar.
[From obsolete dredge, a sweetmeat, from Middle English dragge, from Old French dragie, alteration of Latin tragēmata, confectionary, from Greek, pl. of tragēma, sweetmeat; see terə-1 in the Appendix of Indo-European roots.]
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dredge2
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition copyright ©2022 by HarperCollins Publishers. All rights reserved.
 

Indo-European & Semitic Roots Appendices

    Thousands of entries in the dictionary include etymologies that trace their origins back to reconstructed proto-languages. You can obtain more information about these forms in our online appendices:

    Indo-European Roots

    Semitic Roots

    The Indo-European appendix covers nearly half of the Indo-European roots that have left their mark on English words. A more complete treatment of Indo-European roots and the English words derived from them is available in our Dictionary of Indo-European Roots.

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