tread

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. v. To walk on, over, or along.
2. v. To press beneath the feet; trample.
3. v. To subdue harshly or cruelly; crush.
4. v. To form by walking or trampling: tread a path.
5. v. To execute by walking or dancing: tread a measure.
6. v. To copulate with. Used of a male bird.
7. v. To go on foot; walk.
8. v. To set down the foot; step.
9. v. To press, crush, or injure something by or as if by trampling. Often used with on or upon: trod on her feelings.
10. v. To copulate. Used of birds.
11. n. The act, manner, or sound of treading.
12. n. An instance of treading; a step.
13. n. A mark made by treading, as in snow.
14. n. The upper horizontal part of a step in a staircase.
15. n. The part of a wheel or tire that makes contact with the road or rails.
16. n. The grooved face of a tire.
17. n. The part of a shoe sole that touches the ground.
18. n. Either of the continuous metal belts with which bulldozers, tanks, and certain other vehicles move over the ground.
19. idiom. tread the boards To act on the stage: "We who tread the boards are not the only players of parts in this world” ( John Fowles).
20. idiom. tread water To keep the head above water while in an upright position by pumping the legs.
21. idiom. tread water To expend effort but make little or no progress to achievement of a goal or an end.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. To form puddles under the tread of horses: said of the ground.
2. n. Any horizontal element in a floor upon which the walker treads or presses, and so gives an alarm or makes a signal.
3. To set the foot down, as on the ground.
4. To press or be put down on or as on the ground.
5. To walk; step; especially, to walk with a more or less stately, measured, or cautious step.
6. To copulate, as birds: said especially of a cock-bird.
7. To follow closely.
8. To step or walk on.
9. To beat or press with the feet: as, a well-trodden path.
10. To crush under the foot; trample in contempt or hatred.
11. To dance.
12. To walk.
13. To copulate with or cover, as a bird.
14. To destroy, extinguish, or obliterate by or as by treading or trampling.
15. n. A step or stepping; footing; pressure with the foot.
16. n. Way; track; path. See trade, n. 2.
17. n. Copulation, as of birds.
18. n. The cicatricula of an egg: so called from the former erroneous belief that it appeared only in fecundated eggs laid by the hen after the tread of the cock. Compare treadle.
19. n. Manner of stepping: as, a horse with a good tread.
20. n. The flat or horizontal part of a step or stair; a tread-board.
21. n. The length of a ship's keel.
22. n. The bearing surface of a wheel or of a runner on a road or rail.
23. n. The part of a rail on which the wheels bear.
24. n. The part of a stilt on which the foot rests.
25. n. That part of the sole of a boot or shoe which touches the ground in walking.
26. n. The top of the banquette of a fortification, on which soldiers stand to fire.
27. n. The upper side of the bed of a lathe between the head-stock and the back-center.
28. n. The width from pedal to pedal of a bicycle.
29. n. A wound on the coronet of a horse's foot, produced by the shoe of either hind or fore foot of the opposite side.

Wiktionary

1. n. A step.
2. n. A manner of stepping.
3. n. The grooves on the bottom of a shoe or other footwear, used to give grip or traction.
4. n. The horizontal part of a step in a flight of stairs
5. n. The sound made when someone or something is walking.
6. v. intransitive To step or walk (on or over something); to trample.
7. v. Simple past tense and past participle of tread.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. v. To set the foot; to step.
2. v. To walk or go; especially, to walk with a stately or a cautious step.
3. v. To copulate; said of birds, esp. the males.
4. v. To step or walk on.
5. v. To beat or press with the feet.
6. v. To go through or accomplish by walking, dancing, or the like.
7. v. To crush under the foot; to trample in contempt or hatred; to subdue.
8. v. To copulate with; to feather; to cover; -- said of the male bird.
9. n. A step or stepping; pressure with the foot; a footstep; ; a cautious tread.
10. n. Manner or style of stepping; action; gait.
11. n. rare Way; track; path.
12. n. The act of copulation in birds.
13. n. (Arch.) The upper horizontal part of a step, on which the foot is placed.
14. n. (Fort.) The top of the banquette, on which soldiers stand to fire over the parapet.
15. n. The part of a wheel that bears upon the road or rail.
16. n. The part of a rail upon which car wheels bear.
17. n. (Biol.) The chalaza of a bird's egg; the treadle.
18. n. (Far.) A bruise or abrasion produced on the foot or ankle of a horse that interferes. See Interfere, 3.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. the grooved surface of a pneumatic tire
2. v. apply (the tread) to a tire
3. v. mate with
4. v. put down or press the foot, place the foot
5. n. the part (as of a wheel or shoe) that makes contact with the ground
6. n. structural member consisting of the horizontal part of a stair or step
7. n. a step in walking or running
8. v. tread or stomp heavily or roughly
9. v. brace (an archer's bow) by pressing the foot against the center
10. v. crush as if by treading on