TREAD

tread|tred. Tread, or Tred, n. a step with the foot, path

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Tread (?), v. i. [imp. Trod (?); p. p. Trodden (?), Trod; p. pr. & vb. n. Treading.] [[OE. treden, AS. tredan; akin to OFries. treda, OS. tredan, D. & LG. treden, G. treten, OHG. tretan, Icel. tro�a, Sw. tråda, träda, Dan. træde, Goth. trudan, and perhaps ultimately to F. tramp; cf. Gr. � a running, Skr. dram to run. Cf. Trade, Tramp, Trot.]] 1. 1. To set the foot; to step.
Where'er you tread, the blushing flowers shall rise. Pope. Fools rush in where angels fear to tread. Pope. The hard stone Under our feet, on which we tread and go. Chaucer. 2. 2. To walk or go; especially, to walk with a stately or a cautious step.
Ye that . . . stately tread, or lowly creep. Milton. 3. 3. To copulate; said of birds, esp. the males. Shak.
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.