Standard Lemma guide

plod

noun · verb · 10 senses · updated from the 2026-07-25 local source snapshot

Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.

Sound

Pronunciation

Each Play button uses your device's default local English voice, or a natural local fallback. The selected voice name appears after playback. This is synthesized speech, not a source recording.

  • UK: /plɒd/
  • General-American: /plɑd/
  • US: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
  • rhymes with -ɒd
  • rhymes with -ɑːd
  • CMU ARPABET: P L AA1 D Digits mark lexical stress: 1 primary, 2 secondary, 0 unstressed.

1

noun

Meaning 1

A slow or labored walk or other motion or activity.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: uncountable

Examples

  • We started at a brisk walk and ended at a plod.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

2

noun

Meaning 2

A puddle.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: obsolete

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

3

noun

Meaning 3

the police, police officers

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: UK, derogatory, mildly, uncountable, usually, with-definite-article

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

4

noun

Meaning 4

a police officer, especially a low-ranking one.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: UK, countable, derogatory, mildly, usually

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

5

verb

Meaning 5

To walk or move slowly and heavily or laboriously (+ on, through, over).

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: intransitive

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

6

verb

Meaning 6

To trudge over or through.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: transitive

Examples

  • 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,

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

7

verb

Meaning 7

To toil; to drudge; especially, to study laboriously and patiently.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: intransitive

Examples

  • On Sundays I keep plodding along at my job.
  • 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;

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

8

verb

Meaning 8

To extrude (soap, margarine, etc.) through a die plate so it can be cut into billets.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: transitive

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

9

noun

Meaning 9

the act of walking with a slow heavy gait

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

Examples

  • I could recognize his plod anywhere

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: plodding

Antonyms: none provided

Broader terms: walk, walking

10

verb

Meaning 10

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

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

Examples

  • Mules plodded in a circle around a grindstone

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: slog, footslog, trudge, pad, tramp

Antonyms: none provided

Broader terms: walk

Narrower terms: squelch, squish, splash, splosh, slosh, slop

History

Etymology

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”).

From Middle English plod. Cognate with Danish pladder (“mire”).

From PC Plod.

Across languages

Translations

39 source translations are retained for this English entry.

  • Macedonian: поли́ција (polícija) — the police
  • Macedonian: полица́ец (policáec) — a police officer
  • Macedonian: ца́јкан (cájkan) — a police officer
  • Bulgarian: мъ́кна се (mǎ́kna se) — to walk slowly
  • Czech: trmácet se — to walk slowly
  • Czech: plahočit se — to walk slowly
  • Czech: vléci se — to walk slowly
  • Czech: belhat se — to walk slowly
  • Czech: vláčet se — to walk slowly
  • Danish: traske — to walk slowly
  • Dutch: ploeteren — to walk slowly
  • Finnish: raahustaa — to walk slowly
  • Finnish: laahustaa — to walk slowly
  • French: marcher lourdement — to walk slowly
  • German: stapfen — to walk slowly
  • Hindi: पाँव घसीटना (pā̃v ghasīṭnā) — to walk slowly
  • Hindi: रेंगना (reṅgnā) — to walk slowly
  • Icelandic: arka — to walk slowly
  • Italian: camminare a fatica — to walk slowly
  • Macedonian: се вле́че (se vléče) — to walk slowly
  • Māori: māngaingai — to walk slowly
  • Māori: māngaingai ngā waewae — to walk slowly
  • Russian: тащи́ться (taščítʹsja) — to walk slowly
  • Russian: брести́ (brestí) — to walk slowly
  • Russian: плести́сь (plestísʹ) — to walk slowly
  • Russian: волочи́ться (voločítʹsja) — to walk slowly
  • Spanish: caminar pesadamente — to walk slowly
  • Spanish: andar arduamente — to walk slowly
  • Spanish: caminar dispendiosamente — to walk slowly
  • Spanish: andar fatigosamente — to walk slowly
  • Spanish: caminar penosamente — to walk slowly
  • Swedish: lunka — to walk slowly
  • Swedish: knoga — to walk slowly
  • Tamil: உந்துதல் (untutal) — to walk slowly
  • Tamil: நகர்தல் (nakartal) — to walk slowly
  • Ukrainian: чвалати (čvalaty) — to walk slowly
  • Ukrainian: брести (bresty) — to walk slowly
  • Czech: lopotit se — to toil
  • Czech: dřít — to toil