Definition of "tread"

tread¹

/tɹɛd/

verb
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.
  Quotations
  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, […], 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. (transitive) To step or walk upon.
3. (figuratively, with certain adverbs of manner) To proceed, to behave (in a certain manner).
4. To beat or press with the feet.
5. To work a lever, treadle, etc., with the foot or the feet.
  Quotations
  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 Asbjørnsen, translated by H.L. Brækstad, Folk and Fairy Tales, page 251
6. To go through or accomplish by walking, dancing, etc.
  Quotations
  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, Act V, scene ii
  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, [Act V, scene ii]
7. To crush under the foot; to trample in contempt or hatred; to subdue.
  Quotations
  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, […], Psalms 44:5
8. (intransitive) To copulate; said of (especially male) birds.
  Quotations
  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, [Act V, scene ii]
9. (transitive, of a male bird) To copulate with.
  Quotations
  Thus, a poultry-breeder describes a hen (colored Dorking) crowing like a cock, only somewhat more harshly, as a cockerel crows, and with an enormous comb, larger than is ever seen in the male. This bird used to try to tread her fellow-hens.
  1927, Havelock Ellis, Studies in the Psychology of Sex, Volume 2 (of 6)‎
10. (transitive) To crush grapes with one's feet to make wine

tread²

/tɹɛd/

noun
plural treads
1. A step taken with the foot.
2. A manner of stepping.
  Quotations
  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 number(s))”, in Maud, and Other Poems, London: Edward Moxon, […]
3. The sound made when someone or something is walking.
  Quotations
  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
  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
4. (obsolete) A way; a track or path.
  Quotations
  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, [Act II, scene i]
5. (construction) A walking surface in a stairway on which the foot is placed.
  Quotations
  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.
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.

Definition of "tread"

tread1

verb

Quotations

Quotations

Quotations

Quotations

Quotations

Quotations

tread2

noun

Quotations

Quotations

Quotations

Quotations

tread¹

tread²