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Wag vs Wade - What's the difference?

wag | wade |

As verbs the difference between wag and wade

is that wag is to swing from side to side, especially of an animal's tail while wade is to walk through water or something that impedes progress.

As nouns the difference between wag and wade

is that wag is an oscillating movement while wade is an act of wading.

As a proper noun Wade is

{{surname|topographic|from=Old English}.

wag

English

Verb

  • To swing from side to side, especially of an animal's tail
  • * Shakespeare
    • No discerner durst wag his tongue in censure.
  • * Bible, Jer. xviii. 16
    • Every one that passeth thereby shall be astonished, and wag his head.
  • (UK, Australia, slang) To play truant from school.
  • * 1848 , Charles Dickens, Dombey and Son, xxii
    • "My misfortunes all began in wagging,'' Sir; but what could I do, exceptin' ''wag''?" "Excepting what?" said Mr. Carker. "''Wag,'' Sir. ''Wagging'' from school." "Do you mean pretending to go there, and not going?" said Mr. Carker. "Yes, Sir, that's ''wagging, Sir."
  • * 1901 , William Sylvester Walker, In the Blood, i. 13
    • They had "wagged it" from school, as they termed it, which..meant truancy in all its forms.
  • (obsolete) To be in action or motion; to move; to get along; to progress; to stir.
  • * Shakespeare
    • "Thus we may see," quoth he, "how the world wags ."
  • (obsolete) To go; to depart.
  • * Shakespeare
    • I will provoke him to 't, or let him wag .

    Derived terms

    * (to not go to school) play the wag; hop the wag; wag it * to finger-wag

    See also

    * waggle (frequentative) * wiggle

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • An oscillating movement.
    • The wag of my dog's tail expresses happiness.
  • A witty person.

    • See also

    * skivitis

    References

    * The Oxford English Dictionary, (1989) Accessed 23 Feb. 2006. * Jonathon Green, "wag," The Cassell Dictionary of Slang, (1998) p. 1257.

    Anagrams

    * ----

    wade

    English

    Etymology 1

    From (etyl) wadan'', from (etyl) "to go". Cognates include Latin ''vadere "go, walk; rush" (whence English invade, evade).

    Verb

    (wad)
  • to walk through water or something that impedes progress.
  • * Milton
    • So eagerly the fiend / With head, hands, wings, or feet, pursues his way, / And swims, or sinks, or wades , or creeps, or flies.
  • * 1918 , (Edgar Rice Burroughs), Chapter VIII
    • After breakfast the men set out to hunt, while the women went to a large pool of warm water covered with a green scum and filled with billions of tadpoles. They waded in to where the water was about a foot deep and lay down in the mud. They remained there from one to two hours and then returned to the cliff.
  • to progress with difficulty
    • to wade through a dull book
  • * Dryden
    • And wades through fumes, and gropes his way.
  • * Davenant
    • The king's admirable conduct has waded through all these difficulties.
  • to walk through (water or similar impediment); to pass through by wading
    • wading swamps and rivers
  • To enter recklessly.
    • to wade into a fight or a debate

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • an act of wading

    • Related terms

    * wade in * wade into * wade through

    Etymology 2

    Noun

    (-)
    • (Mortimer)
    (Webster 1913)

    Anagrams

    * * ----