▪ I. trudge, v.1
(trʌdʒ)
Also 6 tredge, 6–7 (8–9 dial.) tridge, 7 trug.
[Of obscure origin. Skeat suggests F. trucher to beg from laziness (in Oudin, 16th c.), but this does not agree in sense.]
1. intr. To walk laboriously, wearily, or without spirit, but steadily and persistently; ‘to jog on; to march heavily on’ (J.). Sometimes merely an undignified equivalent of ‘walk’, ‘go on foot’.
| 1547 Bk. Marchauntes e j b, If the belles rynge in any place..for an obit, than oure gentyl gallants trudge apace. c 1550 in Strype Mem. Cranmer (1694) App. xlix. 138 Some of their carcases standith on the gates, And their heads..on London bridge, Therefore, ye Traytors, beware your pates, For yf ye be founde, the same way must ye tridge. 1573 Tusser Husb. (1878) 21 Good husband he trudgeth, to bring in the gaines, Good huswife she drudgeth, refusing no paines. 1622 Mabbe tr. Aleman's Guzman d'Alf. i. 219, I..trugg'd along with my sore legge. 1685 Evelyn Mrs. Godolphin (1888) 122 Wherever a certaine Lady goes,—I must trudge. 1709–10 Steele Tatler No. 137 ¶3, I was the other Day trudging along Fleet street on Foot. 1795 Wolcott (P. Pindar) Royal Visit Exeter ii. xi, Now tridg'd to aldermen and may'r, 'Squire Rolle. 1856 R. A. Vaughan Mystics (1860) II. xi. i. 216 From house to house he trudges in the snow, visiting poor widows. 1880 L. Oliphant Gilead i. 18 We were perpetually meeting them trudging behind their loaded mules. |
b. Also with it.
| 1649 G. Daniel Trinarch., Hen. V, clxxxv, The Ragged Squad..will trudge it out And Combat all the world, if Harrie lead. 1787 Minor iv. i. 203 So my mentor and I trudged it on foot to Oxford. 1806 T. S. Surr Winter in Lond. I. 194 Give me your arm, we'll trudge it. |
c. spec. To go away, be off, depart.
| 1547–64 Bauldwin Mor. Philos. (Palfr.) 77 The cowardly..souldier..betaketh him to his feete, & trudgeth away. 1562 Jack Juggler (1873) 50 Be tredging, or in faith you bere me a souse. 1573 New Custom i. ii, Hence out of my sight, away, packing, trudge. 1623–34 Fletcher & Mass. Lover's Progr. i. ii, 'Tis time for me to trudge. 1824 Scott Let. to Ld. Montagu 14 Apr., in Lockhart, A dog of a banker has bought his house.., and I fear he must trudge. |
d. fig.
| 1573 Tusser Husb. (1878) 177 If pennie for all thing be suffred to trudge, Trust long, not to pennie, to haue him thy drudge. 1575 R. B. Appius & Virg. B iij b, By beuty of Virginia, my wisdome all is trudged. 1683 Kennett tr. Erasm. on Folly 54 Trudging after learning. 1763 Jefferson Corr. Wks. 1859 I. 185 All things here appear to me to trudge on in one and the same round. 1856 J. Richardson Recoll. I. iv. 86 [The other masters at Eton] trudged leisurely on in the beaten track of school literature. |
2. trans. a. To perform (a journey) or travel over (a distance) by trudging; to tramp; to trudge along or over.
| 1635 E. Pagitt Christianogr. 190 They..are constrained to trudge no small journeyes, to begge their wages. 1884 Browning Ferishtah, Two Camels 37, I shall trudge The distance. 1886 Hall Caine Son of Hagar iii. iii, Drayton..trudged the floor uneasily. |
b. To trudge with (a burden); to drag about.
| 1883 W. H. Bishop in Harper's Mag. Mar. 504/2 A few old men trudge about their bake-ovens and water jars and strings of dried squash. |
3. The vb.-stem used advb.: cf. tramp v.1 7.
| 1904 M. Pemberton Red Morn xx, Trudge, trudge, trudge upon the muddy path she went. |
Hence ˈtrudging vbl. n. and ppl. a.; also ˈtrudger1, one who trudges.
| a 1849 H. Coleridge Poems (1850) II. 379 Dear..To weary *trudger by the long black lake. 1896 Blackw. Mag. Feb. 224 The steadiest trudger along life's road. |
| 1570 Marr. Wit & Science v. iii, Such *trudging and such toyle..was neuer seene. 1653 Milton Hirelings Wks. 1851 V. 369 To save them the trudging of many miles thither. 1728 Morgan Algiers I. Pref. 15 My Trudgings have been so misguided, by an Ignis Fatuus. 1828 P. Cunningham N.S. Wales (ed. 3) II. 197 After three hard weeks of toilsome trudging over rugged hills. 1584 R. Scot Discov. Witchcr. xiv. viii. (1886) 310 He set forward on his journey a good trudging pase. 1716 Gay Trivia i. 118 The griping Broker..laughs at Honesty, and trudging Wits. 1848 Dickens Dombey xviii, His trudging wife..loiters to see the company come out. |
▪ II. trudge, v.2
see trudgen.
▪ III. trudge, n.
(trʌdʒ)
[f. trudge v.1]
1. A person who trudges; a trudger.
| 1748 Smollett Rod. Rand. xxx, Nor would he be a tennis-ball, nor a shuttle-cock, nor a trudge, nor a scullion. 1775 Jekyll Corr. (1894) 22 Miss would have felt the absence of her fellow-trudge in clambering stiles and scrambling through hedges. |
2. An act of trudging; a laborious or wearisome walk; a ‘tramp’.
| 1835 J. Brown Lett. (1907) 32 You say nothing of your body and how it fared in your darkness trudge. 1871 L. Stephen Playgr. Eur. iv. iii. 257 We reached the mule track, and a steady trudge along it led us back. |
† 3. (Meaning uncertain: ? error for thrutch.)
| 1579 Lyly Euphues (Arb.) 137 One thing said twice (as we say commonly) deserveth a trudge. |
▪ IV. † trudge, a. Obs. rare—1.
[f. as prec.]
? That trudges (as in service or attendance upon one).
| 1602 F. Herring Anat. 14 Those old Suresbies and Trudge blew-coats, Antimony and Mercury Precipitate. |