Also 6 tredge, 6–7 (8–9 dial.) tridge, 7 trug. [Of obscure origin. Skeat suggests F. trucher to beg from laziness (in Oudin, 16th c.), but this does not agree in sense.]
1. intr. To walk laboriously, wearily, or without spirit, but steadily and persistently; ‘to jog on; to march heavily on’ (J.). Sometimes merely an undignified equivalent of ‘walk,’ ‘go on foot.’
1547. Bk. Marchauntes, ej b. If the belles rynge in any place … for an obit, than oure gentyl gallants trudge apace.
c. 1550. in Strype, Mem. Cranmer (1694), App. xlix. 138. Some of their carcases standith on the gates, And their heads … on London bridge, Therefore, ye Traytors, beware your pates, For yf ye be founde, the same way must ye tridge.
1573. Tusser, Husb. (1878), 21. Good husband he trudgeth, to bring in the gaines, Good huswife she drudgeth, refusing no paines.
1622. Mabbe, trans. Aleman’s Guzman d’Alf., I. 219. I … trugg’d along with my sore legge.
1685. Evelyn, Mrs. Godolphin (1888), 122. Wherever a certaine Lady goes,—I must trudge.
1709–10. Steele, Tatler, No. 137, ¶ 3. I was the other Day trudging along Fleet Street on Foot.
1795. Wolcott (P. Pindar), Royal Visit Exeter, II. xi. Now tridg’d to aldermen and may’r, ’Squire Rolle.
1856. R. A. Vaughan, Mystics (1860), II. XI. i. 216. From house to house he trudges in the snow, visiting poor widows.
1880. L. Oliphant, Gilead, i. 18. We were perpetually meeting them trudging behind their loaded mules.
b. Also with it.
1649. G. Daniel, Trinarch., Hen. V., clxxxv. The Ragged Squad … will trudge it out And Combat all the world, if Harrie lead.
1787. Minor, IV. i. 203. So my mentor and I trudged it on foot to Oxford.
1806. Surr, Winter in Lond., I. 194. Give me your arm, we’ll trudge it.
c. spec. To go away, be off, depart.
1547–64. Bauldwin, Mor. Philos. (Palfr.), 77. The cowardly … souldier … betaketh him to his feete, & trudgeth away.
1562. Jack Juggler (1873), 50. Be tredging, or in faith you bere me a souse.
1573. New Custom, I. ii. Hence out of my sight, away, packing, trudge.
1623–34. Fletcher & Mass., Lover’s Progr., I. ii. ’Tis time for me to trudge.
1824. Scott, Lett. to Ld. Montagu, 14 April, in Lockhart. A dog of a banker has bought his house…, and I fear he must trudge.
d. fig.
1573. Tusser, Husb. (1878), 177. If pennie for all thing be suffred to trudge, Trust long, not to pennie, to haue him thy drudge.
1575. R. B., Appius & Virg., B iij b. By beuty of Virginia, my wisdome all is trudged.
1683. Kennett, trans. Erasm. on Folly, 54. Trudging after learning.
1763. T. Jefferson, Corr., Wks. 1859, I. 185. All things here appear to me to trudge on in one and the same round.
1856. J. Richardson, Recoll., I. iv. 86. [The other masters at Eton] trudged leisurely on in the beaten track of school literature.
2. trans. a. To perform (a journey) or travel over (a distance) by trudging; to tramp; to trudge along or over.
1635. Pagitt, Christianogr., 190. They … are constrained to trudge no small journeyes, to begge their wages.
1884. Browning, Ferishtah, Two Camels, 37. I shall trudge The distance.
1886. Hall Caine, Son of Hagar, III. iii. Drayton … trudged the floor uneasily.
b. To trudge with (a burden); to drag about.
1883. W. H. Bishop, in Harper’s Mag., March, 504/2. A few old men trudge about their bake-ovens and water jars and strings of dried squash.
3. The vb.-stem used advb.: cf. TRAMP v.1 7.
1904. Max Pemberton, Red Morn, xx. Trudge, trudge, trudge upon the muddy path she went.
Hence Trudging vbl. sb. and ppl. a.; also Trudger, one who trudges.
a. 1849. H. Coleridge, Poems (1850), II. 379. Dear … To weary *trudger by the long black lake.
1896. Blackw. Mag., Feb., 224. The steadiest trudger along life’s road.
1570. Marr. Wit & Science, V. iii. Such *trudging and such toyle … was neuer seene.
1653. Milton, Hirelings, Wks. 1851, V. 369. To save them the trudging of many miles thither.
1728. Morgan, Algiers, I. Pref. 15. My Trudgings have been so misguided, by an Ignis Fatuus.
1828. P. Cunningham, N. S. Wales (ed. 3), II. 197. After three hard weeks of toilsome trudging over rugged hills.
1584. R. Scot, Discov. Witchcr., XIV. viii. (1886), 310. He set forward on his journey a good trudging pase.
1716. Gay, Trivia, I. 118. The griping Broker … laughs at Honesty, and trudging Wits.
1848. Dickens, Dombey, xviii. His trudging wife … loiters to see the company come out.
Trudge, v.2: see TRUDGEN.
