To tread on or upon. (a) To trample; to set the foot on in contempt.
"Thou shalt tread upon their high places." Deut. xxxiii. 29. (b) to
follow closely. "Year treads on year." Wordsworth. — To tread upon the
heels of, to follow close upon. "Dreadful consequences that tread upon
the heels of those allowances to sin." Milton.
One woe doth tread upon another's heel.
Shak.
Tread, v. t. 1. To step or walk on.
Forbid to tread the promised land he saw.
Prior.
Methought she trod the ground with greater grace.
Dryden.
2. To beat or press with the feet; as, to tread a path; to tread land
when too light; a well- trodden path.
3. To go through or accomplish by walking, dancing, or the like. " I am
resolved to forsake Malta, tread a pilgrimage to fair Jerusalem." Beau.
& Fl.
They have measured many a mile, To tread a measure with you on this
grass.
Shak.
4. To crush under the foot; to trample in contempt or hatred; to
subdue.
Through thy name will we tread them under that rise up against us.
Ps. xliv. 5.
5. To copulate with; to feather; to cover; — said of the male bird.
Chaucer.
To tread out, to press out with the feet; to press out, as wine or
wheat; as, to tread out grain with cattle or horses. — To tread the
stage, to act as a stageplayer; to perform a part in a drama.
Tread, n. 1. A step or stepping; pressure with the foot; a footstep;
as, a nimble tread; a cautious tread.
She is coming, my own, my sweet; Were it ever so airy a tread, My heart
would hear her and beat.
Tennyson.
2. Manner or style of stepping; action; gait; as, the horse has a good
tread.