tread

verb

1. 1

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

   He trod back and forth wearily.

   Don't tread on the lawn.

   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.

   Fools rush in where angels fear to tread.

2. 2

   To step or walk upon.

   Actors tread the boards.

3. 3

   figurativeTo proceed, to behave (in a certain manner).

   to tread lightly, to tread gently

   to tread carefully, to tread cautiously, to tread warily

4. 4

   To beat or press with the feet.

   to tread a path; to tread land when too light; a well-trodden path

5. 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.

6. 6

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

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

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

7. 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.

8. 8

   To copulate; said of (especially male) birds.

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

9. 9

   To copulate with (a hen).

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

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

10. 10

    To crush grapes with one's feet to make wine

noun

1. 1

   A step taken with the foot.

2. 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.

3. 3

   The sound made when someone or something is walking.

   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.

   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.

   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. 4

   obsoleteA way; a track or path.

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

5. 5

   A 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.

6. 6

   The grooves carved into the face of a tire, used to give the tire traction.

7. 7

   The grooves on the bottom of a shoe or other footwear, used to give grip or traction.

8. 8

   The chalaza of a bird's egg; the treadle.

9. 9

   The act of avian copulation in which the male bird mounts the female by standing on her back.

10. 10

    The top of the banquette, on which soldiers stand to fire over the parapet.

11. 11

    A bruise or abrasion produced on the foot or ankle of a horse that interferes, or strikes its feet together.

Forms

plural

treads

past tense

trod, treaded

past participle

trodden, trod, treaded

present participle

treading

third person singular

treads