Word.ws English Dictionary

treaded lightly

treaded lightly is the simple past of tread lightly.

treaded lightly is the past participle of tread lightly.

Meaning of tread lightly

Verb

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

  1. (idiomatic) To proceed carefully; especially, to seek to avoid causing offense.
    • He's in a bad mood today, so you might want to tread lightly if you talk to him.
    Synonyms:
    tread carefully

Questions about treaded lightly

What is treaded lightly the simple past of?
Treaded lightly is the simple past of tread lightly.

Words near treaded lightly in the dictionary

  1. treadboards
  2. treaded
  3. treaded down
  4. treaded in someone's footsteps
  5. treaded in someone's steps
  6. treaded lightly
  7. treaded on eggshells
  8. treaded on someone's corns
  9. treaded softly
  10. treaded the boards
  11. treaded the stage

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: treaded lightly (page history and authors); tread lightly (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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