wading
v.v. to walk through water or another thick substance that makes it hard to move. You use this when the water is not deep enough for swimming but deep enough to slow you down.
v. to walk with effort through water, mud, or any substance that offers resistance to movement. Often used metaphorically to describe progressing through a large amount of tedious information or difficult tasks.
We spent the afternoon wading through the shallow stream.
The researchers spent weeks wading through thousands of pages of old court records to find the evidence.
After the heavy rains, the villagers were forced to spend hours wading through knee-deep mud to reach the supply trucks parked on the main road.
From wade + -ing.
Etymology adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Often takes the preposition 'through' when describing the substance being crossed.
wading the riverwading through the riverWhen describing the act of crossing a body of water or a pile of documents, 'through' is typically required.
Last updated May 9, 2026