treading

Pluraltreadings

1. 1
   verb

   Present participle and gerund of tread.

   With the merger talks at a delicate stage, the chief executive is treading carefully in every interview.

   Volunteers were treading the loose soil firm around the newly planted trees.

   Note

   The past tense is irregular (trod), but the -ing form is plain tread plus -ing. It pairs naturally with an adverb when the meaning is behaving with care, as in treading carefully or treading lightly around a touchy subject, and with an object when the feet do the work: treading soil firm, treading grapes for wine.

2. 2
   nouncountable or uncountable

   The act of stepping or walking on something, or of pressing or crushing it underfoot.

   Constant treading by visitors had worn the marble steps into shallow dips.

   The hides needed several treadings in the vat before the leather softened.

   Similartrampling, stamping

   Note

   An old noun, Middle English tredynge, that becomes countable when it names one stage in a process: Victor Regnault's Elements of Chemistry puts skins through "several washings, treadings, and stretchings" before they turn pliant. For the steady wear of feet it stays a mass noun, as with marble steps worn into dips by constant treading.

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