SLEDGE

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does sledge mean? 

• SLEDGE (noun)
  The noun SLEDGE has 2 senses:

1. a vehicle mounted on runners and pulled by horses or dogs; for transportation over snow

2. a heavy long-handled hammer used to drive stakes or wedges

  Familiarity information: SLEDGE used as a noun is rare.

• SLEDGE (verb)
  The verb SLEDGE has 3 senses:

1. transport in a sleigh

2. ride in or travel with a sledge

3. beat with a sledgehammer

  Familiarity information: SLEDGE used as a verb is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• SLEDGE (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A vehicle mounted on runners and pulled by horses or dogs; for transportation over snow

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

Synonyms:

sled; sledge; sleigh

Hypernyms ("sledge" is a kind of...):

vehicle (a conveyance that transports people or objects)

Meronyms (parts of "sledge"):

runner (device consisting of the parts on which something can slide along)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "sledge"):

bob; bobsled; bobsleigh (a long racing sled (for 2 or more people) with a steering mechanism)

bobsled; bobsleigh (formerly two short sleds coupled together)

dog sled; dog sleigh; dogsled (a sled pulled by dogs)

luge (a racing sled for one or two people)

pung (a one-horse sleigh consisting of a box on runners)

toboggan (a long narrow sled without runners; boards curve upward in front)

Derivation:

sledge (ride in or travel with a sledge)

sledge (transport in a sleigh)

Sense 2

Meaning:

A heavy long-handled hammer used to drive stakes or wedges

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

Synonyms:

maul; sledge; sledgehammer

Hypernyms ("sledge" is a kind of...):

hammer (a hand tool with a heavy rigid head and a handle; used to deliver an impulsive force by striking)

Derivation:

sledge (beat with a sledgehammer)

• SLEDGE (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they sledge    ... he / she / it sledges   
Past simple: sledged   
Past participle: sledged   
-ing form: sledging   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Transport in a sleigh

Classified under:

Verbs of walking, flying, swimming

Hypernyms (to "sledge" is one way to...):

transport (move something or somebody around; usually over long distances)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Somebody ----s somebody

Derivation:

sledge (a vehicle mounted on runners and pulled by horses or dogs; for transportation over snow)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Ride in or travel with a sledge

Classified under:

Verbs of walking, flying, swimming

Context example:

The children sledged all day by the lake

Hypernyms (to "sledge" is one way to...):

journey; travel (undertake a journey or trip)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s
Somebody ----s PP

Derivation:

sledge (a vehicle mounted on runners and pulled by horses or dogs; for transportation over snow)

Sense 3

Meaning:

Beat with a sledgehammer

Classified under:

Verbs of touching, hitting, tying, digging

Synonyms:

sledge; sledgehammer

Hypernyms (to "sledge" is one way to...):

hammer (beat with or as if with a hammer)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something

Derivation:

sledge (a heavy long-handled hammer used to drive stakes or wedges)

 Context examples 

Soon after this he inquired if I thought that the breaking up of the ice had destroyed the other sledge.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

In such case we must get a sledge and go on, Russian fashion.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

"Go, ye men, with the dogs and sledges, and take my trail for the better part of a day's travel," he said.

(Love of Life and Other Stories, by Jack London)

About noon, I saw coming towards the house a kind of vehicle drawn like a sledge by four Yahoos.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

There was nothing that he liked to talk of more than his old battles, but he would stop if he saw his little wife coming, for the one great shadow in her life was the ever-present fear that some day he would throw down sledge and rasp and be off to the ring once more.

(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

He is now much recovered from his illness and is continually on the deck, apparently watching for the sledge that preceded his own.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

However, about ten days before their death, which they seldom fail in computing, they return the visits that have been made them by those who are nearest in the neighbourhood, being carried in a convenient sledge drawn by Yahoos; which vehicle they use, not only upon this occasion, but when they grow old, upon long journeys, or when they are lamed by any accident: and therefore when the dying Houyhnhnms return those visits, they take a solemn leave of their friends, as if they were going to some remote part of the country, where they designed to pass the rest of their lives.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

So the King ’e sent one of his genelmen down to Figg and he said to him: ‘’Ere’s a cove vot cracks a bone every time ’e lets vly, and it’ll be little credit to the Lunnon boys if they lets ’im get avay vithout a vacking.’ So Figg he ups, and he says, ‘I do not know, master, but he may break one of ’is countrymen’s jawbones vid ’is vist, but I’ll bring ’im a Cockney lad and ’e shall not be able to break ’is jawbone with a sledge ’ammer.’ I was with Figg in Slaughter’s coffee-’ouse, as then vas, ven ’e says this to the King’s genelman, and I goes so, I does!

(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

It was, in fact, a sledge, like that we had seen before, which had drifted towards us in the night on a large fragment of ice.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

He would strike once with his thirty-pound swing sledge, and Jim twice with his hand hammer; and the Clunk—clink, clink! clunk—clink, clink! would bring me flying down the village street, on the chance that, since they were both at the anvil, there might be a place for me at the bellows.

(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)