sledge1
/slɛdʒ
/- During their historic trek across the constantly moving ocean the women first pulled their 250 lb sledges of food and equipment over house-sized pressure ridges of ice and sat out blizzards.
- Led by accomplished Polar explorer Jim McNeill, the group will pull sledges weighing up to 250 lb for up to 10 hours a day 210 miles to the Magnetic Pole.
- The Manchester University academic and a pal are heading to the Greenland Icecap on sledges pulled by giant kites.
- We discovered that as we had gotten older, we'd gotten taller and larger to the point that sitting on a sledge tends to make it sink into the snow rather than fly screaming towards the trees at the bottom.
- Children across York and North Yorkshire reached for their sledges yesterday as a dusting of snow transformed much of the county into a winter wonderland.
- For any kids who have not burnt enough energy during the day, there's a perfect slope across the road to go sledging in safety.
- This is the first time they have been sledging.
- And fairly often, during the winter, we'd be snowed in, which meant a day off school and the chance to hook up with the children that lived nearby to go sledging.
- All the material for the house had to be sledged up the hill by horse.
- Another was sledged almost halfway up Mount Taranaki, to provide accommodation for visitors.
- That afternoon we made our expedition sledging flags.
Derivatives
sledger
- The snow has created the perfect conditions for sledgers who have been out in force in Lyme Park in Disley.
- ROSPA advised sledgers to walk up slopes to check for obstacles before getting on their sledges.
- Sledgers should ensure there is plenty of room at the end of the run to slow and stop.
Origin
Late 16th century (as a noun): from Middle Dutch sleedse; related to sled. The verb dates from the early 18th century.
The sledge that is a vehicle used on snow and ice came in the late 16th century from Dutch and is related to sled (Middle English), sleigh (early 18th century), slide (Old English), and slither (Middle English). Sleigh is from Dutch, and was originally adopted in North America. To take for a sleigh ride is a dated slang phrase meaning ‘to mislead’, from the use of sleigh ride for an implausible or false story or a hoax. A sleigh ride could also mean ‘a drug-induced high’—this went with the use of snow for cocaine in white powder form, an early 20th-century use for this Old English word. As a name for what we would now more usually call a sledgehammer, the other sledge is recorded in Old English and goes back to a root meaning ‘to strike’ and related to slay. A sledgehammer is a large, heavy hammer used for jobs such as breaking rocks and driving in fence posts, so to take a sledgehammer to crack a nut is to use a disproportionately forceful means to achieve a simple objective. The expression is recorded in the 1930s, but a decade earlier an American version use a sledgehammer to kill a gnat appears. In the 1970s Australian cricketers started sledging, or making offensive or needling remarks to opposing batsmen in an attempt to break their concentration. The idea behind the term is the crudity and lack of subtlety involved in using a sledge or sledgehammer.
Rhymes
sledge2
/slɛdʒ/- One criticism of the young fast bowler is, he is not particularly aggressive; he has never sledged an opponent on the field.
- He has told the player he won't sledge him during the Ashes, which sounds like a parent's promise to leave a light on all night.
- I had plenty of faith in my bowlers to get the batsmen out without sledging them.
- That odious guy sledged me in the lifts today, asked me how I liked being poster girl for The Standard.
- The National Party President was once sledged by Parata at a meeting for saying they would bring more women into the National caucus.
- How's his precious little boy going to cope the first time he gets sledged by a more worldly peer?
- Let's hope a well-timed sledge doesn't put him off.
- Your piece last month on sporting insults was missing a memorable sledge from an Australia v Zimbabwe cricket match.
- Aussies are masters of the well-timed sledge.
- As political sledges go, it was a killer.
- The Q&A session went for 45-minutes, with Turnbull trading sledges with journalists.
- All due respect, but that's an incredibly simplistic sledge.
Derivatives
sledger
- Sexual slurs about a player's wife are favoured weapons in the sledger's armoury.
- Now one thing that our cricketers have been criticised for in recent times is their reputation as big-time sledgers.
- Endless banter was part of his game, but not the truculence and obscenities of the modern sledger.
Origin
1970s: from sledging2.
sledge3
/slɛdʒ/- Steel wedges were driven into the fault and hammered with a sledge until the stone separated.
- Go find a hammer: a claw, a sledge, a ball-peen, whatever's handy.
Origin
Old English slecg (noun), from a Germanic base meaning 'to strike', related to slay1.