Library / English Dictionary

PLOD

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

Irregular inflected forms: plodded    , plodding   

 I. (noun) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

The act of walking with a slow heavy gait

Example:

I could recognize his plod anywhere

Synonyms:

plod; plodding

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Hypernyms ("plod" is a kind of...):

walk; walking (the act of traveling by foot)

 II. (verb) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Walk heavily and firmly, as when weary, or through mud

Example:

Mules plodded in a circle around a grindstone

Synonyms:

footslog; pad; plod; slog; tramp; trudge

Classified under:

Verbs of walking, flying, swimming

Hypernyms (to "plod" is one way to...):

walk (use one's feet to advance; advance by steps)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "plod"):

slop; slosh; splash; splosh; squelch; squish (walk through mud or mire)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s PP

Derivation:

plodder (someone who moves slowly)

plodder (someone who works slowly and monotonously for long hours)

plodder (someone who walks in a laborious heavy-footed manner)

plodding (the act of walking with a slow heavy gait)

Credits

 Context examples: 

I remember him as if it were yesterday, as he came plodding to the inn door, his sea-chest following behind him in a hand-barrow—a tall, strong, heavy, nut-brown man, his tarry pigtail falling over the shoulder of his soiled blue coat, his hands ragged and scarred, with black, broken nails, and the sabre cut across one cheek, a dirty, livid white.

(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

I was the first that could plod in the public eye with a load of genial respectability, and in a moment, like a schoolboy, strip off these lendings and spring headlong into the sea of liberty.

(The Strange Case Of Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

They plodded along together, the woodman and Alleyne, with little talk on either side, for their thoughts were as far asunder as the poles.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

He plodded on with bowed head, unobservant, mechanically rubbing nose and cheeks, and batting his steering hand against the gee-pole in the straight trail-stretches.

(Love of Life and Other Stories, by Jack London)

He continued his plodding pursuit, though once, for the moment baffled, he came to a full stop and blinked at the men who looked on, at the same time wagging his stump of a tail as an expression of his willingness to fight.

(White Fang, by Jack London)

Of course it's all valueless, just so much dull and sordid plodding; but it is no more dull and sordid than keeping books at sixty dollars a month, adding up endless columns of meaningless figures until one dies.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

It was very hard, but I turned back, though with a heavy heart, and began laboriously and methodically to plod over the same tedious ground at a snail's pace; stopping to examine minutely every speck in the way, on all sides, and making the most desperate efforts to know these elusive characters by sight wherever I met them.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

Alleyne was plodding down the slope upon one side, when he saw an old dame coming towards him upon the other, limping with weariness and leaning heavily upon a stick.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

He plodded on silently for ten minutes, and then, as though there had been no lapse in his speech, he added: And no ground covered, and it's too cold to travel.

(Love of Life and Other Stories, by Jack London)

In due time I heard the church-bells ringing, as I plodded on; and I met people who were going to church; and I passed a church or two where the congregation were inside, and the sound of singing came out into the sunshine, while the beadle sat and cooled himself in the shade of the porch, or stood beneath the yew-tree, with his hand to his forehead, glowering at me going by.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)