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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

sled.

A small, light vehicle with runners, used recreationally, mostly by children, for sliding down snow-covered hills; no draft animal pulls it.

4 characters1 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/ˈslɛd/General-American, Received-Pronunciation[ˈslɛd]General-American, Received-Pronunciation/ˈsled/Australia[ˈsled]Australia
  1. A small, light vehicle with runners, used recreationally, mostly by children, for sliding down snow-covered hills; no draft animal pulls it.

    The child zoomed down the hill on his sled.
  2. A vehicle on runners, used for conveying loads over the snow or ice, and often pulled by sled dogs.

    Canada · US
    "Mush!" he yelled at the dogs pulling the sled.
  3. A snowmobile.

    Canada · US · slang
    We saw them go by on their sleds this afternoon, headed toward their grandfather's quarter section.
  4. A car (automobile) or truck, usually called so with the implication of sledlike traits: heavy, low-slung, and prone to going fast but not braking or cornering particularly well.

    Canada · US · figuratively · slang
    He was a bit reckless and frankly we were nervous about riding with him in that big old sled of his, a Cadillac with a V-8.
    That sled had manual drum brakes on all four corners.
  5. A piece of exercise equipment, used in American football training etc., that provides resistance as it is moved over a flat surface.

Where this word comes from

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *h₃sleydʰ- Proto-Indo-European *-eti Proto-Indo-European *h₃sléydʰeti Proto-Germanic *slīdaną Proto-Indo-European *-ō Proto-Germanic *-ô Proto-Germanic *slidô Old Dutch *slido Middle Dutch sleddebor. ▲ Proto-Germanic *slidô Old Saxon slido Middle Low German sledebor. Middle English sledde English sled From Middle English sledde, from Middle Dutch sledde or Middle Low German sledde (compare Dutch slee, slede, Low German Sleden), from Proto-Germanic *slidô (compare Saterland Frisian sliede, German Schlitten, Norwegian slede). Doublet of sleigh; also related to slide.

verb/ˈslɛd/General-American, Received-Pronunciation[ˈslɛd]General-American, Received-Pronunciation/ˈsled/Australia[ˈsled]Australia
  1. To ride a sled.

    intransitive
  2. To convey on a sled.

    transitive
Where this word comes from

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *h₃sleydʰ- Proto-Indo-European *-eti Proto-Indo-European *h₃sléydʰeti Proto-Germanic *slīdaną Proto-Indo-European *-ō Proto-Germanic *-ô Proto-Germanic *slidô Old Dutch *slido Middle Dutch sleddebor. ▲ Proto-Germanic *slidô Old Saxon slido Middle Low German sledebor. Middle English sledde English sled From Middle English sledde, from Middle Dutch sledde or Middle Low German sledde (compare Dutch slee, slede, Low German Sleden), from Proto-Germanic *slidô (compare Saterland Frisian sliede, German Schlitten, Norwegian slede). Doublet of sleigh; also related to slide.

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.