plodded

verb

past tense of plod
1
as in labored
to devote serious and sustained effort plodded night and day to get the assignment done

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2
as in stumbled
to proceed or act clumsily or ineffectually oxen plodding through deep mud

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Antonyms & Near Antonyms
3
as in dragged
to move slowly plodded reluctantly off to work

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4
as in shuffled
to move heavily or clumsily wayfarers plodding across the sandy wastes

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Antonyms & Near Antonyms

Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of plodded Minnesota’s defense has been unreliable lately, but Wisconsin’s offense has plodded most of the year. — Andy Greder, Twin Cities, 28 Nov. 2025 For months, the two initiatives plodded along, with photo ops and declarations of good will. — Jon Lee Anderson, New Yorker, 24 Nov. 2025 The Demon Deacons coach ran towards Belichick while removing his hat as the six-time Super Bowl champion coach plodded his way across the field for a blow-by handshake. — Andrew McCarty, MSNBC Newsweek, 16 Nov. 2025
Recent Examples of Synonyms for plodded
  1. labored
  2. stumbled
  3. dragged
  4. shuffled
  5. struggled
  6. trudged
  7. crawled
  8. stomped
Verb
  • That doesn’t mean the subscription businesses that media companies labored to build will collapse, Cohen said.
    — Rohan Goswami, semafor.com, 7 July 2026
  • On the same pitch earlier, South Africa labored past Bangladesh by four wickets and waited for India's fate.
    — ABC News, ABC News, 28 June 2026
Definition of labored
Verb
  • But if the numbers hold up, Orange County may have stumbled onto something much bigger than baseball.
    — Mike Bianchi, The Orlando Sentinel, 16 July 2026
  • After departing Ecuador en route to El Segundo, members of the crew stumbled upon an unexpected find inside the ship’s garbage — trash bags filled with cocaine, 430 pounds of it.
    — Summer Lin, Los Angeles Times, 14 July 2026
Definition of stumbled
Verb
  • Scardovari, Italy — As the sun was rising, two fisherwomen dragged their boat through the Scardovari lagoon in northeastern Italy.
    — Kasha Patel, CNN Money, 18 July 2026
  • The animation is often rudimentary, particularly in outer-space scenes that are effectively a cut-out of a starship being dragged across a stellar background.
    — Richard Edwards, Space.com, 17 July 2026
Definition of dragged
Verb
  • Bulldozers shuffled right through the rubble to make roads that cut Gaza into separate sections.
    — Literary Hub, Literary Hub, 16 July 2026
  • And before several services shuffled their rankings earlier this week, no QB ranked inside the top 20.
    — Grace Raynor, New York Times, 16 July 2026
Definition of shuffled
Verb
  • Turkey struggled against the USMNT’s corners throughout the game, with multiple chances created from outswinging corners towards the penalty spot.
    — Anantaajith Raghuraman, New York Times, 14 July 2026
  • The visit comes as Garrity trails Shapiro by roughly 20 points, raising questions about how much political influence DeSantis carries in a battleground state where his 2024 presidential campaign struggled to break through.
    — Barnini Chakraborty, The Washington Examiner, 14 July 2026
Definition of struggled
Verb
  • In the bowels of Huntsman Arena, more than an hour after his second NBA Summer League appearance, Darryn Peterson trudged slowly into the media room at the University of Utah, eased into a chair and prepared to answer questions from the media.
    — Tony Jones, New York Times, 10 July 2026
  • Claus trudged to the monitor, watched the foul on an agonizing loop and promptly handed Balogun a red card.
    — Dieter Kurtenbach, Mercury News, 2 July 2026
Definition of trudged
Verb
  • Hull testified that Robinson later returned in different clothing, walking with a limp, rolled onto the roof of a building on campus and crawled to the edge of the rooftop around the time the shot was fired.
    — N'dea Yancey-Bragg, USA Today, 10 July 2026
  • Their father dismounted, went down on foot, climbed the fence his son had crawled under.
    — Emily Ruskovich, The Atlantic, 7 July 2026
Definition of crawled
Verb
  • Cece got out of bed, put on a pair of fuzzy pink slippers, and stomped to her mother’s office.
    — Jessica Contrera, New Yorker, 13 July 2026
  • On Monday night, a 39-year-old man wearing a Spurs jersey was stomped and punched after Game 3 while walking down West 47th Street, about 15 blocks from the arena.
    — Alaa Elassar, CNN Money, 14 June 2026
Definition of stomped

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Cite this Entry

“Plodded.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/plodded. Accessed 21 Jul. 2026.

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More from Merriam-Webster on plodded

Nglish: Translation of plodded for Spanish Speakers

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