Early 17th century (originally a North American usage): from Dutch slee; related to sled.

• sledge from Old English:

  The sledge that is a vehicle used on snow and ice came in the late 16th century from Dutch and is related to sled (Middle English), sleigh (early 18th century), slide (Old English), and slither (Middle English). Sleigh is from Dutch, and was originally adopted in North America. To take for a sleigh ride is a dated slang phrase meaning ‘to mislead’, from the use of sleigh ride for an implausible or false story or a hoax. A sleigh ride could also mean ‘a drug-induced high’—this went with the use of snow for cocaine in white powder form, an early 20th-century use for this Old English word. As a name for what we would now more usually call a sledgehammer, the other sledge is recorded in Old English and goes back to a root meaning ‘to strike’ and related to slay. A sledgehammer is a large, heavy hammer used for jobs such as breaking rocks and driving in fence posts, so to take a sledgehammer to crack a nut is to use a disproportionately forceful means to achieve a simple objective. The expression is recorded in the 1930s, but a decade earlier an American version use a sledgehammer to kill a gnat appears. In the 1970s Australian cricketers started sledging, or making offensive or needling remarks to opposing batsmen in an attempt to break their concentration. The idea behind the term is the crudity and lack of subtlety involved in using a sledge or sledgehammer.