treat
Noun pluraltreats
Formstreats, treating, treated
Pluraltreats
- 1To behave toward or deal with a person or thing in a particular way.
Good managers treat every employee fairly.
The referee treated both teams with equal strictness.
UsageUsually with an adverb, with, or like/as: treat people fairly, with respect, like a child, as a joke.
Similaruse
- 2To give medical or surgical care to a sick or injured person or animal, or to deal with an illness or injury by such care.
Specialists treat this condition with a combination of drugs and therapy.
The clinic treated more flu cases than usual this winter.
Similarmanage
- 3A small item of food eaten for enjoyment rather than as a meal, or given to a pet as a reward.
The bakery sells all kinds of treats near the front counter.
He saved the chocolate treat for after dinner.
- 4To give someone something enjoyable, such as a meal, drink, or outing, often by paying for it.
She offered to treat the whole team after they won the match.
He treated his parents to a weekend at the coast.
UsageUsually treat someone to something: treat the team to dinner. I'll treat on its own says you are paying.
- 5To subject something to a chemical or physical process in order to produce a specific result.
Factories treat the fabric with a coating that repels stains.
The plant treated the wastewater before releasing it into the river.
Similarprocess
- 6An event, experience, or gift that is out of the ordinary and brings great pleasure.
Finding the old letters in the attic was an unexpected treat.
The sudden snow day felt like a treat to the whole class.
UsageOften a real treat or a treat to + verb: it was a treat to hear her sing.
- 7Something pleasant, such as a meal, a drink, or an outing, that one person pays for or provides for others, as in "This one's my treat."
He took the children to the circus as a birthday treat.
The boss arranged a few treats for the staff after the busy season.
UsageIt's my treat or lunch is my treat is a polite way to say you will pay for others.
- 8To deal with a subject in speech or writing, discussing or presenting it in a particular way.
Few textbooks treat the subject in any depth, so most students only learn it on the job.
The documentary treated the scandal with surprising sympathy.
Less common meanings
- 9To negotiate or discuss terms in order to reach an agreement.
The envoys were sent to treat with the neighboring kingdom.
Rather than treat with an enemy it did not trust, the council chose to keep fighting.
UsageTakes with before the other side: envoys treat with an enemy.
Note
Negotiation draws on one strand of the Latin root: tractare, which meant "to handle, to manage" and also "to discuss," from trahere, "to draw." Tolkien's herald asks whether anyone has "authority to treat with me," and Durrell writes that Halifax "would have treated with Hitler." Both passages set it among envoys and enemies, and the word still carries that formal, diplomatic weight.
- 10To plead with or earnestly beg someone for something.
To treate a tiran it is but thing in vayne.
1515, Alexander Barclay, EcloguesOnly let my family live, I treat thee.
Note
Pleading is the meaning here, the same work entreat does, and it is long obsolete. Alexander Barclay's Eclogues, from the early 1500s, warns that "To treate a tiran it is but thing in vayne." In older texts, do not mistake it for the bargaining sense: the speaker begs rather than negotiates.
- 11A discussion of terms between parties; a negotiation or parley.
Similarparley
- 12An earnest request or plea; an entreaty.
- 13To corruptly influence voters by providing food, drink, entertainment, or other provision in exchange for their support.
Showing meanings only.
Practice
Can you tell the meanings of treat apart? Answer 3 quick questions from this page, or write your own sentence and AI will check it.
Origin
The root is Latin 'trahere' ('to draw', 'to pull'), whose past participle stem gave 'tractāre' ('to pull', 'to manage'). This passed into Old French as 'traiter' and Anglo-Norman as 'treter', and English had it in Middle English as 'treten'.