Dredging

v. coat food with flour or crumbs; search; dig, remove earth

For other uses, see Dredge (disambiguation). Dredging is the repositioning of soil from a marine environment, using specialized equipment, in order to initiate infrastructural and/or ecological improvements. In this definition "repositioning" stands for the process of (1) removal, (2) transport, (3) placement and often (4) treatment of soil; "soil" stands for sediment or silt, as well as for specified soil types like sand, gravel and rock.
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Noun
1. a power shovel to remove material from a channel or riverbed
(hypernym) power shovel, excavator, digger, shovel
(part-holonym) dredger
(part-meronym) dredging bucket
(derivation) drag
Verb
1. cover before cooking; "dredge the chicken in flour before frying it"
(hypernym) coat, surface
(hyponym) flour
(classification) cooking, cookery, preparation
2. search (as the bottom of a body of water) for something valuable or lost
(synonym) drag
(hypernym) search, seek, look for
3. remove with a power shovel, usually from a bottom of a body of water
(hypernym) remove, take, take away, withdraw

(p. pr. & vb. n.)
of Dredge
  

To clean, deepen or widen with a machine equipped with scooping or suction devices used in deepening harbors and waterways and in underwater mining. (BOC2)