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Digger vs Dredge - What's the difference?

digger | dredge |

As nouns the difference between digger and dredge

is that digger is a large piece of machinery that digs holes or trenches; an excavator while dredge is any instrument used to gather or take by dragging; as.

As a verb dredge is

to make a channel deeper or wider using a dredge.

digger

English

Noun

(en noun)
  • A large piece of machinery that digs holes or trenches; an excavator.
  • A tool for digging.
  • * 2009 , Sharon Bomgaars, The Best Clubhouse Ever , page 143,
    • The post hole digger did look ancient. I was pretty certain myself that it hadn?t dug any holes for a long, long time.
  • A spade (playing card).
  • One who digs.
  • * 1997 , Barbara J. Wrede, Civilizing Your Puppy , page 75,
    • You?ve tried the supposedly sure method of squirting the digger' with water from a hose, and that hasn?t worked.This step will discourage 99 percent of the ' diggers .
  • * 2005 , Gary R. Sampson, Dick Wolfsie, Dog Dilemmas: Simple Solutions to Everyday Problems , page 130,
    • Most retrievers are not inveterate diggers — that?s a trait usually reserved for other breeds like wire-haired terriers and schnauzers.
  • (Australia, obsolete) A gold miner, one who digs for gold.
  • * 1853 , (editor), Household Words , Volume 21, page 64,
    • A successful Australian digger — successful, not merely in siftings and washings, but bearing the title, and its best credentials, of a “nuggetter” ? came down from Forest Creek recently and took up his abode in a low lodging-house in Little Bourke Street, Melbourne.
  • (Australia, dated) An informal nickname for a friend; used as a term of endearment .
  • (Australia, informal) An Australian soldier.
  • * 1998 , Helen Gilbert, Sightlines: Race, Gender, and Nation in Contemporary Australian Theatre , page 191,
    • Costume played a key part in his differentiation from British soldiers as the Digger uniform came to embody Australian versions of masculinity and mateship.
  • * 2002 , Jeff Doyle, Jeffrey Grey, Peter Pierce, Australia's Vietnam War , page xxiii,
    • For many, the congruencies of the Anzac legend and the diggers who served in Vietnam were slight, too slight, and the legend seemed unable to accommodate them.
  • * 2004 , Lisanne Gibson, Joanna Besley, Monumental Queensland: Signposts on a Cultural Landscape , page 99,
    • Like many other Queensland communities, the workers from the North Ipswich Railway Workshops chose a statue of a soldier, or digger , to honour their fellow workers.

    Derived terms

    * gold digger, golddigger * gravedigger * mini digger

    Anagrams

    * English agent nouns

    dredge

    English

    Etymology 1

    (Dredging) From (etyl) dreg-boat'' (from (etyl) *''drecg(e) ) or alternatively from (etyl) dregghe, probably ultimately from the same root as drag.

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • Any instrument used to gather or take by dragging; as:
  • # A dragnet for taking up oysters, etc., from their beds.
  • # A dredging machine.
  • # An iron frame, with a fine net attached, used in collecting animals living at the bottom of the sea.
  • Very fine mineral matter held in suspension in water.
    • (Raymond)

    Verb

    (dredg)
  • to make a channel deeper or wider using a dredge
  • to bring something to the surface with a dredge
  • (Usually with up) to unearth, such as an unsavoury past

    • Related terms

    * dredger * dredging

    Etymology 2

    From (etyl) dragie, via (etyl) from (etyl) .

    Verb

    (dredg)
  • to coat moistened food with a powder, such as flour or sugar

    • Etymology 3

    (etyl) dragge, (etyl) .

    Noun

  • A mixture of oats and barley.
    • (Kersey)