treadmill
/ˈtɹɛd.mɪl/
treadmill noun: a piece of indoor sporting equipment used to allow for the motions of running or walking while staying in one place.
Noun
treadmill (plural treadmills)
- A piece of indoor sporting equipment used to allow for the motions of running or walking while staying in one place.
- A mill worked by persons treading upon steps on the periphery of a wide wheel having a horizontal axis. It was used principally as a means of prison discipline.
- Their paternal house of Drummington, Foker could very seldom be got to visit. He swore he had rather go on the treadmill than stay there.1848 November – 1850 December, William Makepeace Thackeray, chapter 40, in The History of Pendennis. […], volume (please specify |volume=I or II), London: Bradbury and Evans, […], published...
- Synonyms:
- mill, stepper, everlasting staircase
- A mill worked by horses, dogs, etc., treading an endless belt.
- Ancient nomads, wishing to ward off the evening chill and enjoy a meal around a campfire, had to collect wood and then spend time and effort coaxing the heat of friction out from between sticks to kindle a flame. With more settled people, animals were harnessed to capstans or caged in treadmills to...2013 July-August, Henry Petroski, “Geothermal Energy”, in American Scientist, volume 101, number 4
- A process or situation in which continued effort leads to or is required for remaining at a particular state or level without moving ahead.
- 1 As a result, people can easily find themselves alternating between various treadmills: the hedonic treadmill of pursuing happiness, the status treadmill requiring conspicuous consumption, and the treadmill of work undertaken to finance one's activity on the other two treadmills.2018 April 3, Emrys Westacott, The Wisdom of Frugality: Why Less Is More - More or Less, Princeton University Press, →ISBN, page 205
- Elizabeth Schor (1999) has long argued that this status treadmill, even if not universal, has worked to “ratchet” global conceptualizations of need and desire upward over time.2021 August 12, Paul Roscoe, Cindy Isenhour, Consumption, Status, and Sustainability: Ecological and Anthropological Perspectives, Cambridge University Press, →ISBN
Verb
treadmill (third-person singular simple present treadmills, present participle treadmilling, simple past and past participle treadmilled)
- To exercise on a treadmill.
- To keep busy, for example, with work or with other tasks, without being able to get ahead or make progress towards long-term goals.
- Most of us are so busy "earning each day our daily bread" that we have but little "open" time. […] Occasionally one wonders "What's it all for, anyway?" For years he's been treadmilling it, day in and day out, and presently the graying hair at the temples will shock him into the grim reality that...1918, Walter E. Webb, “Add Yourself Up”, in Coast Banker and Pacific Banker and California Banker, page 377
- Back we were in the rat race, treadmilling sixty hours a week and sleeping forty, our sex life was like that of most busy cohabiters I suppose: fun, frolicky, and squeezed in haphazardly when we had a minute—or thirty.2009 July 1, Janna Cawrse Esarey, The Motion of the Ocean: 1 Small Boat, 2 Average Lovers, and a Woman's Search for the Meaning of Wife, Simon and Schuster, →ISBN, page 127
treadmill meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu
treadmill in Hindi
- ट्रेडमिल, ट्रैडमिल
treadmill in Tamil
- ட்ரெட்மில், டிரெட்மில், டிரெட்மில்லு
treadmill in Marathi
- piece of indoor sporting equipment
- पायगिरणी pāygirṇī
treadmill in Urdu
- ٹریڈمل
More languagesFewer languages
- treadmill in Bengali
- ট্রেডমিল, ট্রেডমিলে
- treadmill in Telugu
- ట్రెడ్మిల్, ట్రెడ్మిల్ల్
- treadmill in Malayalam
- ട്രെഡ്മില്ല്
- treadmill in Kannada
- ಟ್ರೆಡ್ಮಿಲ್, ಟ್ರೆಡ್ಮಿಲ್ಲು, ಟ್ರೆಡ್ಮಿಲ್ಲ್
- treadmill in Punjabi
- ਟ੍ਰੇਡਮਿਲ, ਟ੍ਰੈਡਮਿਲ, ਟਰੇਡਮਿਲ
- treadmill in Gujarati
- ટ્રેડમિલ, ટ્રેડમિલર, ત્રેડમિલ
- treadmill in Odia
- ଟ୍ରେଡମିଲ, ଟ୍ରେଡମିଲ୍, ଟ୍ରେଡ୍ମିଲ୍
- treadmill in Nepali
- ट्रेडमिल, ट्रेडमिलिङ, ट्रेडमिललाई
- treadmill in Arabic
- جِهَاز الْمَشْي jihāz al-mašy, جِهَاز الْجَرْي jihāz al-jary, آلَةُ الْْجَرْيِ ʔālatu l-jaryi, آلَةُ الرَكْضِ ʔālatu r-rakḍi
- treadmill in Malay
- sawat injak
- treadmill in Vietnamese
- máy chạy bộ
Examples of treadmill in a sentence
- He listened to music on his media player while he worked out on the treadmill: a classic use of background fodder.
- Weight-supported treadmill training unweighs the patient and licenses the utilization of a mechanized treadmill for walking.
- But what is clear is that office workers are on a treadmill of pointless activity.
Synonyms of treadmill
Forms of treadmill
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | treadmills |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | treadmills |
| present participle | treadmilling |
| past participle | treadmilled |
| past | treadmilled |
Origin of treadmill
From tread + mill. Its figurative senses refer to the idea that running on a treadmill requires continued effort and motion to remain in the same place.
Words formed from treadmill
Questions about treadmill
- What does treadmill mean?
- Treadmill means a piece of indoor sporting equipment used to allow for the motions of running or walking while staying in one place.
- What is treadmill in Hindi?
- Treadmill in Hindi is ट्रेडमिल, ट्रैडमिल. See Treadmill meaning in Hindi.
- What part of speech is treadmill?
- Treadmill can be a noun or a verb.
- How do you pronounce treadmill?
- Treadmill is pronounced /ˈtɹɛd.mɪl/.
- What is the plural of treadmill?
- The plural of treadmill is treadmills.
Words near treadmill in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: treadmill (page history and authors); treadmill (Hindi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); treadmill (Tamil, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); treadmill (Urdu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); treadmill (Bengali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); treadmill (Telugu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); treadmill (Malayalam, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); treadmill (Kannada, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); treadmill (Punjabi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); treadmill (Gujarati, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); treadmill (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); treadmill (Nepali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). 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:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-treadmill.wav.
Cite this entry: “treadmill.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/treadmill. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.