Word.ws English Dictionary

treading water

treading water is the present participle and gerund 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 treading water

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

Words near treading water in the dictionary

  1. treading out
  2. treading softly
  3. treading the boards
  4. treading the stage
  5. treading upon
  6. treading water
  7. treadings
  8. treadle
  9. treadled
  10. treadler
  11. treadlers

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: treading 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.

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