sledge
/slɛd͡ʒ/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 3.07 in modern English
8
Scrabble Score
6
Letters
1
Syllables
5
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
A sledgehammer.
verb
To hit with a sledgehammer.
noun
A card game resembling all fours and seven-up; old sledge.
verb
To verbally insult or abuse an opponent in order to distract them (considered unsportsmanlike).
Australian usage
Example Sentences
- "[based on information from Major Hill, Master of the Silver Mills, in 1662, describing silver mining in Cardiganshire] They dig the Oar thus; One holds a little Picque, or Punch of Iron, having a long Handle of Wood which they call a Gad; Another with a great Iron Hammer, or Sledge, drives it into the Vein."
- "Sledge hammers are only used for heavy-duty persuading when working on vehicles or machinery."
- "The rapid and violent exertion of smiths, mightily sledging the glowing iron masses of their furnaces."
- "When I inquired the reason of this wire being used in the construction of the safe, I was told it was to prevent the doors being broken by either sledging or wedging."
- "The sledge ran far better upon the ice; I cannot say the same for the dogs."
- "The sledges of the Esquimaux are of large size, varying from six and a half to nine and even eleven feet in length, and from eighteen inches to two feet in breadth."
Etymology
From Middle English slegge, from Old English sleċġ (“sledgehammer; mallet”), from Proto-Germanic *slagjǭ. Cognate with Dutch slegge (“sledge”), Swedish slägga (“sledge”), Norwegian Bokmål slegge (“sledge”), Norwegian Nynorsk sleggje (“sledge”), Icelandic sleggja (“sledge”).
Origin
- Source language: Middle English
- First known use: First attested in the 1960s
Word Breakdown
- Root: slegge, sleċġ, *slagjǭ, *sleydʰ-, sleedse
Usage
- British usage
- Australian usage