tread - Wiktionary, the free dictionary (original) (raw)

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary

From Middle English treden, from Old English tredan, from Proto-West Germanic *tredan, from Proto-Germanic *trudaną.

tread (third-person singular simple present treads, present participle treading, simple past trod or **tread or treaded, past participle trodden or trod or **tread or treaded)

  1. (intransitive) To step or walk (on or across something); to trample.
    He trod back and forth wearily.
    Don't tread on the lawn.
  2. (transitive) To step or walk upon.
    Actors tread the boards.
  3. (figuratively, with certain adverbs of manner) To proceed, to behave (in a certain manner).
    to tread lightly, to tread gently
    to tread carefully, to tread cautiously, to tread warily
  4. To beat or press with the feet.
    to tread a path; to tread land when too light; a well-trodden path
  5. To work a lever, treadle, etc., with the foot or the feet.
    • 1886, Peter Christen Asbj&oslash￵rnsen, translated by H.L. Brækstad, Folk and Fairy Tales, page 251:
      Round about them was a circle of girls and wives of the neighbouring tenants; "they trod the spinning-wheels with diligent feet, or were using the scraping carding-combs," as an author has it.
  6. To go through or accomplish by walking, dancing, etc.
  7. To crush under the foot; to trample in contempt or hatred; to subdue; to repress.
    Synonym: step on
  8. (intransitive) To copulate; said of (especially male) birds.
  9. (transitive, of a male bird) To copulate with (a hen).
    • 1923, D. H. Lawrence, Fantasia of the Unconscious:
      But if a child sees a cockerel tread a hen, or two dogs coupling, well and good. It should see these things.
    • 1927, Havelock Ellis, Studies in the Psychology of Sex, Volume 2 (of 6)‎[1]:
      This bird used to try to tread her fellow-hens.
  10. (transitive) To crush grapes with one's feet to make wine
    Synonym: stomp

to step on

to beat with one's feet; to trample

From Middle English tred, from treden (“to tread”).

the tread on a car tyre

the sole of a pair of trainers showing the tread

diagram of a set of steps showing the tread

tread (plural treads)

  1. A step taken with the foot.
  2. A manner of stepping.
  3. The sound made when someone or something is walking.
    • 1896, Bret Harte, Barker's Luck and Other Stories:
      But when, after a singularly heavy tread and the jingle of spurs on the platform, the door flew open to the newcomer, he seemed a realization of our worst expectations.
    • 1955 January, R. S. McNaught, “From the Severn to the Mersey by Great Western”, in Railway Magazine, page 19:
      As we stood waiting for the departure time with the setting sun twinkling on the great brass dome of our 2-4-0, the sound of church bells was the only one apart from the measured tread of the guard slowly pacing towards his van, and, standing at an open window, I more than once heard the fireman's "Right away!" to his mate in acknowledgement of a desultory wave of the unfurled green flag.
  4. (obsolete) A way; a track or path.
  5. (construction) A walking surface in a stairway on which the foot is placed.
    • 1956, Anthony Burgess, Time for a Tiger (The Malayan Trilogy), published 1972, page 25:
      The dog was waiting for him, her paws on the second tread, pere regardant with a happy lolling tongue.
  6. The grooves carved into the face of a tire, used to give the tire traction. [from 1900s]
  7. The grooves on the bottom of a shoe or other footwear, used to give grip or traction.
  8. (biology) The chalaza of a bird's egg; the treadle.
  9. The act of avian copulation in which the male bird mounts the female by standing on her back.
  10. (fortification) The top of the banquette, on which soldiers stand to fire over the parapet.
  11. A bruise or abrasion produced on the foot or ankle of a horse that interferes, or strikes its feet together.

step

sound made when someone or something is walking

horizontal part of a step

grooves in tire

grooves in a sole