📒 to put your foot down while you are stepping or walking
- Ouch! You trod on my toe!
- Careful you don't tread in that puddle.
- Be careful not to tread on the flowers.
📒 to move, push or press something with your feet
- Don't tread ash into the carpet!
- The wine is still made by treading grapes in the traditional way.
- She planted the seeds and trod the earth down.
📒 to walk somewhere
- Few people had trod this path before.
- He was treading quietly and cautiously.
📒 people with little experience try to do the difficult or dangerous things that more experienced people would not consider doing
📒 to be very careful about what you do or say
- The government will have to tread very carefully in handling this issue.
- We must tread warily —we don't want to offend anyone.
📒 to choose and follow a particular way of life, way of doing something, etc.
- A restaurant has to tread the tricky path between maintaining quality and keeping prices down.
📒 to follow somebody closely
📒 to offend or annoy somebody, especially by getting involved in something that is their responsibility
- I don’t want to tread on anybody’s toes so I’ll keep quiet.
📒 to be in a difficult situation in which you do not have much freedom of action and need to be extremely careful about what you do
- The government is walking a difficult tightrope in wanting to reduce interest rates without pushing up inflation.
📒 to keep yourself in the same place in deep water by moving your arms and legs
📒 to make no progress while you are waiting for something to happen
- I decided to tread water until a better job came along.
📒 to be in a difficult or dangerous situation where you could easily make a mistake
- He was walking a fine line between being funny and being rude.
- She often seems to tread a thin line between success and failure.
- His comedy treads the line between shocking and sickening.