How to use treadmill in a sentence

16 example sentences · noun, verb

Treadmill means a piece of indoor sporting equipment used to allow for the motions of running or walking while staying in one place. Example: “He listened to music on his media player while he worked out on the treadmill: a classic use of background fodder.”

Examples of treadmill by meaning

nounA mill worked by horses, dogs, etc., treading an endless belt.

With more settled people, animals were harnessed to capstans or caged in treadmills to turn grist into meal.2013 July-August, Henry Petroski, “Geothermal Energy”, in American Scientist, volume 101, number 4

nounA process or situation in which continued effort leads to or is required for remaining at a particular state or level...

Elizabeth Schor (1999) has long argued that this status treadmill, even if not universal, has worked to “ratchet” global conceptualizations of need and desire upward over time.2021 August 12, Paul Roscoe, Cindy Isenhour, Consumption, Status, and Sustainability: Ecological and Anthropological Perspectives...

verbTo keep busy, for example, with work or with other tasks, without being able to get ahead or make progress towards...

Back we were in the rat race, treadmilling sixty hours a week and sleeping forty, our sex life was like that of most busy cohabiters I suppose: fun, frolicky, and squeezed in haphazardly when we had a minute—or thirty.2009 July 1, Janna Cawrse Esarey, The Motion of the Ocean: 1 Small Boat, 2 Average Lovers, and a Woman's Search for the Meaning of Wife...

More sentences with treadmill

He listened to music on his media player while he worked out on the treadmill: a classic use of background fodder.From the entry background fodder
Weight-supported treadmill training unweighs the patient and licenses the utilization of a mechanized treadmill for walking.2023, Meena Gupta, Dinesh Bhatia, Prakash Kumar, Modern Intervention Tools for Rehabilitation, page 76. From the entry unweigh
But what is clear is that office workers are on a treadmill of pointless activity.2013 August 17, Schumpeter, “In praise of laziness”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8849. From the entry which
An entire management industry exists to spin the treadmill ever faster.2013 August 17, Schumpeter, “In praise of laziness”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8849. From the entry which
For this scene, four horses pulling two full-size chariots were led onto a massive treadmill at centerstage.2008 January 4, Roger Mummert, “Stage Doors and Rail Stops”, in New York Times. From the entry centerstage
Linguists are familiar with the phenomenon, which may be called the euphemism treadmill.2003, Steven Pinker, The Blank Slate. From the entry euphemism treadmill
When your picture flipples, it could be that 30 roaches are on a treadmill doing their exercises.1975, TV Guide. From the entry flipple
The grand old euphemism treadmill has done it in.2025 July 10, John McWhorter, “It’s Time to Let Go of ‘African American’”, in The New York Times, →ISSN, archived from the original on 10…. From the entry euphemism treadmill
Life is, then a sort of squirrel cage or treadmill.1944, B. R. McElderry Jr., “The Grapes of Wrath: In the Light of Modern Critical Theory”, in College English, volume 5, number 6, page 312. From the entry squirrel cage
Life is an endless treadmill of work, commuting and recovering at home, often with the Internet for company and little other respite.2016, Thomas Burgess, From Here to Prosperity, Shepheard Walwyn, →ISBN. From the entry endie
It explains the proliferation of PCs, iPods, smartphones, Tivos, GPS maps, digital cameras, and every other gadget on the constantly declining cost treadmill in techland.2005, John Mauldin, Just one thing, page 11. From the entry techland
During the '90s, some social trendwatchers believe, the same overwhelming urge to join will drive aging yuppies off their treadmills and into the streets.1991, Kurt Finsterbusch, Annual Editions: Sociology, 91-92. From the entry trendwatcher
Since we selected treadmill to apply mechanoloading to the mice, it will be an important future study to evaluate a possible impact of alterations in general metabolism.2015 October 22, “Mechanical Loading Synergistically Increases Trabecular Bone Volume and Improves Mechanical Properties in the Mouse when…. From the entry mechanoloading

Meaning of treadmill

noun A piece of indoor sporting equipment used to allow for the motions of running or walking while staying in one place.
noun A mill worked by persons treading upon steps on the periphery of a wide wheel having a horizontal axis. It was used principally as a means of prison discipline.
noun A mill worked by horses, dogs, etc., treading an endless belt.

Full definition of treadmill

Questions about treadmill in a sentence

How do you use treadmill in a sentence?: Treadmill is used as a noun and verb. For example: “He listened to music on his media player while he worked out on the treadmill: a classic use of background fodder.”
What is a short sentence with treadmill?: “The grand old euphemism treadmill has done it in.”
What does treadmill mean?: Treadmill means a piece of indoor sporting equipment used to allow for the motions of running or walking while staying in one place.

Adapted from Wiktionary: treadmill (page history and authors) and the entries each sentence comes from. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws chose the sentences, left out offensive ones and quotations older than 1900, and marked the word in each. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated: 2026-09-02

Cite this page: “How to use treadmill in a sentence.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sentences/treadmill. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.