Significatio vocis vadum | Babel Free

Definitiones

1. A shallow, ford, shoal
   declension-2, neuter
2. genitive plural of vas (“bail”)
   form-of, genitive, plural
3. A body of water; sea, stream
   declension-2, neuter
4. The bottom of a body of water
   declension-2, neuter
5. a “shallow” as a metaphor for circumstances implying either safety or danger, similar to a boat in shallow water
   declension-2, figuratively, neuter

Aequivalentia

Exempla

“[…] alterum per prōvinciam nostram, multō facilius atque expedītius, proptereā quod inter fīnēs Helvētiōrum et Allobrogum, quī nūper pācātī erant, Rhodanus fluit, isque nōn nūllīs locīs vadō trānsītur.”

The other [route] was through our province, much easier and more unobstructed, because between the territories of the Helvetii and the Allobroges, who had been recently subdued, the Rhone flows, and that [river] is crossed by a ford in not a few places.

“DĀVUS: Omnis rēs est iam in vadō.”

DAVUS: The whole affair is now in shallow water. (In context, the idiom conveys both safety and danger — the play has reached a high point of comic tension — yet Davus is confident that things will resolve favorably.)

Gradus CEFR