From Middle English *plodden (found only in derivative plodder), probably originally a splash through water and mud, from plodde, pludde (“a puddle”) (whence modern plud). Compare Scots plod, plodge, plodder, dialectal Dutch plodden, plodderen, dialectal German ploddern, Danish pladder (“mire”).
Meanings
(uncountable) A slow or labored walk or other motion or activity.
Germany can’t afford to stick to the stately plod into decline that Merkel initiated any longer. Merz will have to act fast, and break things to pull the country out of the quagmire it finds itself in. 2025 February 23, Lisa Haseldine, “Whatever happens next, Merkelism is finished”, in The Telegraph, archived from the original on 23 Feb 2025:
From Middle English *plodden (found only in derivative plodder), probably originally a splash through water and mud, from plodde, pludde (“a puddle”) (whence modern plud). Compare Scots plod, plodge, plodder, dialectal Dutch plodden, plodderen, dialectal German ploddern, Danish pladder (“mire”).
Meanings
(intransitive) To walk or move slowly and heavily or laboriously (+ on, through, over).
I remember him as if it were yesterday, as he came plodding to the inn door, his sea chest following behind him in a handbarrow; 1881–1882, Robert Louis Stevenson, chapter 1, in Treasure Island, London; Paris: Cassell & Company, published 14 November 1883, →OCLC, part I (The Old Buccaneer), page 1:
The beast that bears me, tired with my woe,
Plods dully on, to bear that weight in me, 1609, William Shakespeare, “Sonnet 50”, in Shake-speares Sonnets. […], London: By G[eorge] Eld for T[homas] T[horpe] and are to be sold by William Aspley, →OCLC:
(transitive) To trudge over or through.
Quest[ion]. Where was Ioseph?
Answ[er]. It may be, he was playing the Carpenter abrode for all their three livings, but sure it is, he was not idlely plodding the streetes, much lesse tipling in the Taverne with our idle swingers. 1596, Henoch Clapham, A Briefe of the Bible, Edinburgh: Robert Walde-grave, page 127:
1799, Matthew Gregory Lewis, The Love of Gain, London: J. Bell, p. 50, lines 449-451,
[…] Speed thou to Lombard-street,
Or plod the gambling 'Change with busy feet,
'Midst Bulls and Bears some false report to spread,
Break no rosemary, bright with rime
And sparkling to the cruel clime;
Nor plod the winter land to look
For willows in the icy brook
To cast them leafless round him […] 1896, A. E. Housman, A Shropshire Lad, London: The Richards Press, XLVI, pp. 69-70:
(intransitive) To toil; to drudge; especially, to study laboriously and patiently.
1597, Michael Drayton, “Edward the fourth to Shores wife” in Englands Heroicall Epistles, London: N. Ling,
Poore plodding schoolemen, they are farre too low,
which by probations, rules and axiom’s goe,
He must be still familiar with the skyes,
which notes the reuolutions of thine eyes;
On Sundays I keep plodding along at my job.
(transitive) To extrude (soap, margarine, etc.) through a die plate so it can be cut into billets.
cs trmácet se (to walk slowly) · cs vláčet se (to walk slowly) · cs dřít (to toil) · it camminare a fatica (to walk slowly) · mi māngaingai (to walk slowly) · mk се вле́че (to walk slowly) · fi raahustaa (to walk slowly) · mi māngaingai ngā waewae (to walk slowly) · hi पाँव घसीटना (to walk slowly) · cs plahočit se (to walk slowly) · ru волочи́ться (to walk slowly) · ru плести́сь (to walk slowly) · cs vléci se (to walk slowly) · uk чвалати (to walk slowly) · es caminar dispendiosamente (to walk slowly) · hi रेंगना (to walk slowly) · es caminar pesadamente (to walk slowly) · uk брести (to walk slowly) · ta உந்துதல் (to walk slowly) · sv lunka (to walk slowly) · sv knoga (to walk slowly) · es andar fatigosamente (to walk slowly) · is arka (to walk slowly) · da traske (to walk slowly) · es caminar penosamente (to walk slowly) · fi laahustaa (to walk slowly) · ru брести́ (to walk slowly) · cs belhat se (to walk slowly) · fr marcher lourdement (to walk slowly) · de stapfen (to walk slowly) · es andar arduamente (to walk slowly) · bg мъ́кна се (to walk slowly) · nl ploeteren (to walk slowly) · cs lopotit se (to toil) · ru тащи́ться (to walk slowly) · ta நகர்தல் (to walk slowly)