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Glite Dictionary
to aggrade

to aggrade

9.9
Raise the bottom of a river or stream by leaving sand and mud that build up
  • verb
  • /əˈɡreɪd/
  • Specialized
translation icon : aggradar
  • After a heavy rain, the river began to aggrade as sediment settled at the bottom.

Examples

  • The stream also begins to aggrade, or fill in, with sediment from eroding channel sections upstream.

    Academic text (2003)

  • If massive erosion is underway on Cebu, the rivers should be aggrading with attendant flooding, and coastal deposition should be significant.

    Academic text (1994)

  • The chute is now buried by aggraded soil.

    Academic text (2002)

  • Larger floods that recur on the order of decades inundate the aggraded floodplain terraces, where later successional species establish (D).

    Academic text (1997)

  • Within a given patch, one flood event might cause scour, whereas either aggrading or equilibrium conditions might prevail over a larger scale or over a longer temporal scale (years or more; see Effenberger et al. 2006).

    Academic text (2006)

  • The construction of the dam caused the lake to aggrade, raising its water level significantly.

  • Over time, the stream aggraded, leading to a gradual increase in the height of its banks.

Antonyms

to degrade
  • Specialized
35 5.1

To wear away soil and rock by wind or water

How Much

to aggrade
  • Specialized
9.9
to silt up
1 6.9
to build up
207 3.0

Surface Forms

aggrade infinitive
aggraded past
aggraded past participle
aggrading present participle
aggrades third person singular

Morphology

aggrade = grade (semi-transparent) = ag + grade

The prefix 'ag-' is not commonly recognized by learners, and the meaning shift to 'raising the level by sediment' is specialized.

Etymology

The word aggrade comes from Latin parts ad- meaning 'to' and gradus meaning 'step', the same root as the common English word grade. So to aggrade a river is to make its bed 'step up' by building up sand and mud, which raises the channel and can change the landscape.