Progged

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. Jabbed or poked at something with a stick or finger ; searched around in a casual, scavenging way for food or odds and ends
2. Prodded at an object to stir it up ; rooted about looking for something useful or edible, like a forager
3. Nudged or pushed at something repeatedly ; hunted around through a pile or area to see what could be found

Etymology: "Progged" is the past tense of "prog," which means to poke at something or to prod it. The verb itself is a clipped form, shortened from an older word, and the source it was cut from is "proke," a variant with the same sense of poking or thrusting. Clipping is the process where a longer word loses its ending or its beginning and survives in the shorter form, and "prog" is one of those trimmed survivors. The word has a rougher cousin in the wider family of poking verbs, and its history shows how easily such short, punchy forms arise in everyday speech. Because "prog" is a clipped form rather than a word built from a clear root, its exact path into English is not something the evidence traces precisely, so the sense of prodding is the most reliable thread to follow.

Synonyms: prodded, poked