sledge

Meanings

1. 1
   verb

   ride in or travel with a sledge

   The antarctic expedition sledged along the coastline.

2. 2
   noun

   A heavy, long handled maul or hammer used to drive stakes, wedges, etc.

   [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.

3. 3
   verb

   To hit with a sledgehammer.

   The rapid and violent exertion of smiths, mightily sledging the glowing iron masses of their furnaces.

4. 4
   noun

   A low sled drawn by animals, typically on snow, ice or grass.

   The sledge ran far better upon the ice; I cannot say the same for the dogs.

Simplified etymology

The vehicle called a sledge was borrowed from Dutch in the late 16th century and is related to sled, sleigh, slide, and slither. The unrelated word for a heavy hammer was already recorded in Old English and comes from a root meaning “strike,” also related to slay. Australian cricket’s verb sledge, meaning to make offensive or distracting remarks to an opponent, arose in the 1970s from the idea of the sledgehammer’s crude force.

From Sledge (“a surname”), influenced by sledgehammer. First attested in the 1960s in Australian English. According to Ian Chappell, originated in Adelaide during the 1963/4 or 1964/5 Sheffield Shield season. A cricketer who swore in the presence of a woman was taken to be as subtle as a sledgehammer (meaning unsubtle) and was called “Percy” or “Sledge”, from singer Percy Sledge (whose song When a Man Loves a Woman was a hit at the time). Directing insults or obscenities at the opposition team then became known as sledging.

Topics

External links

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• Cambridge Dictionary
• Wiktionary