tread

present singular third person treads · participle present treading · past trod · past treaded · participle past trodden · participle past trod · participle past treaded · alternative obsolete treade

1. intransitiveTo step or walk (on or across something); to trample.

   Don't tread on the lawn.

   4 more examples

   He trod back and forth wearily.

   And Moses sware on that day, saying, Surely the land whereon thy feet haue troden, shall be thine inheritance, and thy childrens for euer, because thou hast wholly followed the Lord my God.

   1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Joshua 14:9

   Fools rush in where angels fear to tread.

   1711, Alexander Pope, An Essay on Criticism, part III

   yee that walk The Earth, and stately tread, or lowly creep

   1667, John Milton, Paradise Lost

2. transitiveTo step or walk upon.

   Actors tread the boards.

3. figurativelyTo proceed, to behave (in a certain manner).

   to tread lightly, to tread gently

   1 more example

   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.

   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.

   1886, Peter Christen Asbjø￵rnsen, translated by H.L. Brækstad, Folk and Fairy Tales, page 251

6. To go through or accomplish by walking, dancing, etc.

   I am resolved to forsake Malta, tread a pilgrimage to fair Jerusalem.

   1616–1619 (first performance), John Fletcher, Philip Massinger, Nathan Field, “The Knight of Malta”, in Comedies and Tragedies […], London: […] Humphrey Robinson, […], and for Humphrey Moseley […], published 1647, →OCLC, Act V, scene ii

   1 more example

   They have measured many a mile, / To tread a measure with you on this grass.

   c. 1595–1596 (date written), William Shakespeare, “Loues Labour’s Lost”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene ii]

7. To crush under the foot; to trample in contempt or hatred; to subdue; to repress.

   Through thee will we push down our enemies: through thy name will we tread them under that rise up against us.

   1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Psalms 44:5

   Synonyms: step on

8. intransitiveTo copulate; said of (especially male) birds.

   When Turtles tread, and Rookes and Dawes, And Maidens bleach their summer smockes:

   c. 1595–1596 (date written), William Shakespeare, “Loues Labour’s Lost”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene ii]

9. transitiveTo copulate with (a hen).

   This bird used to try to tread her fellow-hens.

   1927, Havelock Ellis, Studies in the Psychology of Sex, Volume 2 (of 6)

   1 more example

   But if a child sees a cockerel tread a hen, or two dogs coupling, well and good. It should see these things.

   1923, D. H. Lawrence, Fantasia of the Unconscious

10. transitiveTo crush grapes with one's feet to make wine

    Synonyms: stomp

plural treads · alternative obsolete treade

1. A step taken with the foot.

   Synonyms: run

2. A manner of stepping.

   She is coming, my own, my sweet; / Were it ever so airy a tread, / My heart would hear her and beat.

   1855, Alfred Tennyson, “(please specify the page)”, in Maud, and Other Poems, London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC

3. The sound made when someone or something is walking.

   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.

   1896, Bret Harte, Barker's Luck and Other Stories

   2 more examples

   The steps fell lightly and oddly, with a certain swing, for all they went so slowly; it was different indeed from the heavy creaking tread of Henry Jekyll. Utterson sighed. "Is there never anything else?" he asked.

   1886, Robert Louis Stevenson, Strange Case Of Dr Jekyll And Mr Hyde

   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.

   1955 January, R. S. McNaught, “From the Severn to the Mersey by Great Western”, in Railway Magazine, page 19

4. obsoleteA way; a track or path.

   And the queint Mazes in the wanton greene, For lacke of tread are vndistinguishable.

   c. 1595–1596 (date written), William Shakespeare, “A Midsommer Nights Dreame”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene i]

5. businessA walking surface in a stairway on which the foot is placed.

   The dog was waiting for him, her paws on the second tread, pere regardant with a happy lolling tongue.

   1956, Anthony Burgess, Time for a Tiger (The Malayan Trilogy), published 1972, page 25

6. The grooves carved into the face of a tire, used to give the tire traction.First known use 1900s
7. The grooves on the bottom of a shoe or other footwear, used to give grip or traction.
8. biologyThe 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. fortificationThe 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.