Word.ws English Dictionary

treaded water

treaded water is the simple past and past participle of tread water.

Meaning of tread water

Verb

tread water (third-person singular simple present treads water, present participle treading water, simple past (common in US) treaded water or (more common in UK) trod water, past participle (common in US) treaded water or (more common in UK) trod water or (more common in UK) trodden water)

  1. (intransitive) To remain afloat in the water without use of any buoyancy aid, by using kicking motions and hand motions.
    • Near-synonym: keep one's head above water
  2. (figuratively) To make no progress, expending effort just enough to maintain a stable position.
    • Near-synonym: keep one's head above water

Questions about treaded water

What is treaded water the simple past and past participle of?
Treaded water is the simple past and past participle of tread water.

Words near treaded water in the dictionary

  1. treaded on eggshells
  2. treaded on someone's corns
  3. treaded softly
  4. treaded the boards
  5. treaded the stage
  6. treaded water
  7. treader
  8. treaders
  9. treadest
  10. treadeth
  11. Treadgold

Source and license

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

Last updated:

Cite this entry: “treaded water.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/treaded_water. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.