<p><strong>Noun:</strong></p><ul><li>also called dredging machine</li><li>any of various powerful machines for dredging up or removing earth, as from the bottom of a river, by means of a scoop, a series of buckets, a suction pipe, or the like</li><li>a barge on which such a machine is mounted</li><li>a dragnet or other contrivance for gathering material or objects from the bottom of a river, bay, etc.</li></ul><p><strong>Verb:</strong></p><ul><li>(used with object) to clear out with a dredge; remove sand, silt, mud, etc., from the bottom of</li><li>to take, catch, or gather with a dredge; obtain or remove by a dredge</li><li>(used without object) to use a dredge</li><li>verb phrase: to unearth or bring to notice: We dredged up some old toys from the bottom of the trunk</li><li>to locate and reveal by painstaking investigation or search: Biographers excel at dredging up little known facts</li></ul>