Word.ws English Dictionary

treading lightly

treading lightly is the present participle and gerund 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 treading lightly

What is treading lightly the present participle and gerund of?
Treading lightly is the present participle and gerund of tread lightly.

Words near treading lightly in the dictionary

  1. treading a measure
  2. treading carefully
  3. treading down
  4. treading in someone's footsteps
  5. treading in someone's steps
  6. treading lightly
  7. treading on
  8. treading on eggshells
  9. treading on someone's corns
  10. treading on someone's toes
  11. treading out

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: treading 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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