tread

Etymology 1

From Middle English treden, from Old English tredan, from Proto-West Germanic *tredan, from Proto-Germanic *trudaną.

verb

1. (intransitive) To step or walk (on or across something); to trample.
   He trod back and forth wearily.
   Don't tread on the lawn.
   Fools rush in where angels fear to tread. 1711, Alexander Pope, An Essay on Criticism, part III
   yee that walk The Earth, and stately tread, or lowly creep 1667, John Milton, Paradise Lost
2. (transitive) To step or walk upon.
   Actors tread the boards.
3. (figurative, with certain adverbs of manner) To proceed, to behave (in a certain manner).
   to tread lightly, to tread gently
   to tread carefully, to tread cautiously, to tread warily
4. To beat or press with the feet.
   to tread a path; to tread land when too light; a well-trodden path
5. To work a lever, treadle, etc., with the foot or the feet.
   Round about them was a circle of girls and wives of the neighbouring tenants; "they trod the spinning-wheels with diligent feet, or were using the scraping carding-combs," as an author has it. 1886, Peter Christen Asbjørnsen, translated by H.L. Brækstad, Folk and Fairy Tales, page 251
6. To go through or accomplish by walking, dancing, etc.
7. To crush under the foot; to trample in contempt or hatred; to subdue.
8. (intransitive) To copulate; said of (especially male) birds.
9. (transitive, of a male bird) To copulate with.
   Thus, a poultry-breeder describes a hen (colored Dorking) crowing like a cock, only somewhat more harshly, as a cockerel crows, and with an enormous comb, larger than is ever seen in the male. This bird used to try to tread her fellow-hens. 1927, Havelock Ellis, Studies in the Psychology of Sex, Volume 2 (of 6)
10. (transitive) To crush grapes with one's feet to make wine

Etymology 2

From Middle English tred, from treden (“to tread”).

noun

1. A step taken with the foot.
2. A manner of stepping.
3. The sound made when someone or something is walking.
   The steps fell lightly and oddly, with a certain swing, for all they went so slowly; it was different indeed from the heavy creaking tread of Henry Jekyll. Utterson sighed. "Is there never anything else?" he asked. 1886, Robert Louis Stevenson, Strange Case Of Dr Jekyll And Mr Hyde
   But when, after a singularly heavy tread and the jingle of spurs on the platform, the door flew open to the newcomer, he seemed a realization of our worst expectations. 1896, Bret Harte, Barker's Luck and Other Stories
4. (obsolete) A way; a track or path.
5. (construction) A walking surface in a stairway on which the foot is placed.
   The dog was waiting for him, her paws on the second tread, pere regardant with a happy lolling tongue. 1956, Anthony Burgess, Time for a Tiger (The Malayan Trilogy), published 1972, page 25
6. The grooves carved into the face of a tire, used to give the tire traction.
7. The grooves on the bottom of a shoe or other footwear, used to give grip or traction.
8. (biology) The chalaza of a bird's egg; the treadle.
9. The act of avian copulation in which the male bird mounts the female by standing on her back.
10. (fortification) The top of the banquette, on which soldiers stand to fire over the parapet.
11. A bruise or abrasion produced on the foot or ankle of a horse that interferes, or strikes its feet together.