Word.ws English Dictionary

tread the boards

/ˌtɹɛd ðə ˈbɔːdz/US/ˌtɹɛd ðə ˈboɹdz/

tread the boards verb: to work as a theatre actor.

tread the boards: to work as a theatre actor
Image: Florencecassisi, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Verb

tread the boards (third-person singular simple present treads the boards, present participle treading the boards, simple past trod the boards or tread the boards or treaded the boards, past participle trodden the boards or trod the boards or tread the boards or treaded the boards)

  1. (dated, humorous, idiomatic, intransitive) To work as a theatre actor.
    • He seems to think that he's the greatest actor who's ever trod the boards.
    • […] I vvent, on the follovving morning, to the theatre to rehearſe; and my ignorance of ſome ſtage cuſtoms, vvhen I arrived there, vvas eaſily conſtrued into my confuſion, at rehearſing in a ſtrange company, vvhich any one vvho has ever trodden the boards, knovvs to be a much more formidable...1799, Francis Lathom, “The Second Part of the Same Story”, in Men and Manners, […], volume III, London: […] J. Wright, […]; and H. D. Symonds, […], →OCLC, page 215
  2. (dated, figuratively, humorous, idiomatic, intransitive) To write plays for the theatre.
    • After years of acting, she decided to tread the boards as a playwright instead, penning three successful comedies for the local theater company.

Synonyms of tread the boards

Forms of tread the boards

third-person singular presenttreads the boards
present participletreading the boards
pasttrod the boards
pasttread the boards
pasttreaded the boards
past participletrodden the boards
past participletrod the boards
past participletread the boards
past participletreaded the boards

Origin of tread the boards

From the fact that theatre stages are often made of wooden boards which are trodden by actors. Compare French monter sur les planches (literally “to get up onto the boards”). The term boards (“a theatrical stage”) was first attested in the mid-1700s, this idiom itself was first attested in the mid-1800s, and was preceded by the idiom tread the stage, first attested in 1691.

Questions about tread the boards

What does tread the boards mean?
Tread the boards means to work as a theatre actor.
What part of speech is tread the boards?
Tread the boards is a verb.
How do you pronounce tread the boards?
Tread the boards is pronounced /ˌtɹɛd ðə ˈbɔːdz/ (UK).
What is the past tense of tread the boards?
The past tense of tread the boards is trod the boards.

Words near tread the boards in the dictionary

  1. tread on eggshells
  2. tread on someone's corns
  3. tread on someone's toes
  4. tread out
  5. tread softly
  6. tread the boards
  7. tread the stage
  8. tread upon
  9. tread water
  10. tread-lightly
  11. tread-softly

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: tread the boards (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-tread the boards.wav.

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