retread

present singular third person retreads · participle present retreading · participle past retreaded · past retreaded

1. To replace the traction-providing surface of a vehicle that employs tires, tracks or treads.
2. UKTo renew the tread of a tyre, providing a cheaper alternative to buying a new tyre, but potentially introducing a risk of premature failure if performed improperly.

   There was no evidence to suggest that the fact that both tyres had been retreaded 3 times was a factor in the failure occurrence. This type of aircraft tyre (Type VII) is routinely retreaded 6 times or more before being taken out of service.

   1993 June, Presidency of Civil Aviation of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, “1.12.13.6.3 Visual and Microscopic Examinations”, in McDonnell-Douglas DC-8-61, C-GMXQ, accident at King Abdulaziz International Airport, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, on 11 July 1991, archived from the original on 14 May 2022

   Synonyms: recap

plural retreads

1. A used tire whose surface, the tread, has been replaced to extend its life and use.
2. slanggovernmentA person who re-entered military service in World War II after serving in World War I.

   We retreads upset everybody.

   1976, James Jones, Art Weithas, WW II: a chronicle of soldiering

   3 more examples

   In Our War the Retreads usually slinked in over-aged, over-weight and overcautious in the face of a new generation.

   1950, Air Force Association, United States Army, Air Force Magazine

   They were retreads and recruits under a small cadre of Regular Army officers and noncoms.

   1971, Brian Garfield, The thousand-mile war: World War II in Alaska and the Aleutians

   As with the 100th Division, many of the replacements joining the 103d were "retreads" from the technical services or antiaircraft and aviation troops...

   2006, Keith E Bonn, When the Odds Were Even

present singular third person retreads · participle present retreading · past retrod · participle past retrodden · alternative re-tread

1. transitiveTo tread again, to walk along again, to follow a path again.

   1 more example

   As a child I had not been content with the results promised by the modern professors of natural science. With a confusion of ideas only to be accounted for by my extreme youth and my want of a guide on such matters, I had retrod the steps of knowledge along the paths of time and exchanged the discoveries of recent inquirers for the dreams of forgotten alchemists. Besides, I had a contempt for the uses of modern natural philosophy.

   1818, Mary Shelley, Frankenstein

plural retreads · alternative re-tread

1. figurativelysometimesA return over ground previously covered; a retraversal or repetition.

   But The West Side Waltz is otherwise a tedious retread of Mr. Thompson's previous effort, On Golden Pond.

   1998, Frank Rich, Hot seat: theater criticism for the New York times, 1980–1993

   1 more example

   It uses a howitzer to shoot drugged fish in a barrel, inserts flabby lite-surrealism where the comedy might otherwise go and the plot turns out to be a retread of JM Barrie’s stage-play The Admirable Crichton.

   2022 May 21, Peter Bradshaw, “Triangle of Sadness review – heavy-handed satire on the super-rich loses its shape”, in The Guardian