tread the boards

present singular third person treads the boards · participle present treading the boards · past trod the boards · past treaded the boards · participle past trodden the boards · participle past trod the boards · participle past treaded the boards

1. datedhumorousidiomaticintransitiveTo work as a theatre actor.

   He seems to think that he's the greatest actor who's ever trod the boards.

   5 more examples

   […] I vvent, on the follovving morning, to the theatre to rehearſe; and my ignorance of ſome ſtage cuſtoms, vvhen I arrived there, vvas eaſily conſtrued into my confuſion, at rehearſing in a ſtrange company, vvhich any one vvho has ever trodden the boards, knovvs to be a much more formidable ordeal, than the actual performance at night; […]

   1799, Francis Lathom, “The Second Part of the Same Story”, in Men and Manners, […], volume III, London: […] J. Wright, […]; and H. D. Symonds, […], →OCLC, page 215

   How do I know she would have succeeded? She had never then trod the boards. Besides, what strikes you as so good in a village show, may be poor enough in a metropolitan theatre.

   1857, Pisistratus Caxton [pseudonym; Edward Bulwer-Lytton], chapter VIII, in What will He Do with It? (Collection of British Authors; CCCCVII), Tauchnitz edition, volume I, Leipzig: Bernhard Tauchnitz, →OCLC, book I, page 60

   The sleek bigot of the conventicle is a more superb actor than the applauded mime who treads the boards.

   1867, Thomas Lake Harris, chapter II, in Arcana of Christianity: An Unfolding of the Celestial Sense of the Divine Word, […] Part III.—The Apocalypse, volume I, New York, N.Y.; London: Brotherhood of the New Life, →OCLC, section 234, page 125

   This actress was an amiable woman; and Madge enacted Celia in "As You Like It" at her benefit without any revival of the dread of Shakspeare [i.e., William Shakespeare] which the tragedian had implanted in her. She was now beginning to tread the boards with familiar ease. At first, the necessity of falling punctually into prearranged positions on the stage, and of making her exits and entrances at prescribed sides, had so preoccupied her that all freedom of attention or identification of herself with the character she represented had been impossible.

   1881 (date written), George Bernard Shaw, chapter VIII, in Love among the Artists, Chicago, Ill.: Herbert S. Stone and Company […], published 1900, →OCLC, book I, page 156

   Jack and Stephen, treading the boards together in Dublin, could not be summoned so fast.

   1957, Lillian de la Torre, “The Tragic Muse”, in The Actress; being the Story of Sarah Siddons […], Edinburgh; New York, N.Y.: Thomas Nelson & Sons, →OCLC, page 201

   Synonyms: tread the stage, walk the boards

2. datedfigurativelyhumorousidiomaticintransitiveTo write plays for the theatre.

   After years of acting, she decided to tread the boards as a playwright instead, penning three successful comedies for the local theater company.