▪ I. ˈplodding, vbl. n.
[-ing1.]
The action of the verb plod; walking heavily, trudging; toiling or striving with laborious industry.
| 1588 Shakes. L.L.L. iv. iii. 305 Vniuersall plodding poysons vp The nimble spirits in the arteries. 1645 Milton Tetrach. Wks. 1851 IV. 155 No worthy enterprise can be done by us without continuall plodding and wearisomnes to our faint and sensitive abilities. 1820 L. Hunt Indicator No. 24 (1822) I. 190 Between the plodding of a sexton through a Church-yard, and the walk of a Gray, what a difference! 1891 Athenæum 9 May 602/3 After laborious plodding through page after page of the letters. |
So plod-plodding, designating a continuous thudding sound.
| 1881 Black Sunrise III. iv. 74 They had by this time grown quite accustomed to the plod plodding of the train. |
▪ II. plodding, ppl. a.
(ˈplɒdɪŋ)
[f. plod v. + -ing2.]
That plods; walking or working slowly and laboriously; diligent without brilliancy; persevering.
| 1589 Nashe Anat. Absurd. Wks. (Grosart) I. 37 Let the indifferent Reader diuine what deepe misterie can be placed vnder plodding méeter. 1599 B. Jonson Cynthia's Rev. ii. iii, A dull, plodding face, still looking in a direct line. 1628 Earle Microcosm. (Arb.) 72 A Plodding Student Is a kind of alchymist or Persecutor of Nature. 1686 Goad Celest. Bodies ii. iv. 198 The Pladding Countryman overlooks such Vicissitudes of Nature. 1702 Yalden æsop at Court x. iv, A solemn plodding Ass that graz'd the plain. 1822 Hazlitt Table-t. Ser. ii. xii. (1869) 250 The English are considered as comparatively a slow plodding people. |
Hence ˈploddingly adv., ˈploddingness.
| 1592 Nashe P. Penilesse (ed. 2) 13 For his hire any handy craft man..wil ploddingly do his day labor. 1880 Green Hist. Eng. People IV. ix. i. 223 Grenville was ploddingly industrious. 1882 H. C. Merivale Faucit of B. I. i. xi. 185 Out of the dulness and the ploddingness. |