Word.ws English Dictionary

treads water

treads water is the third-person singular simple present indicative 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 treads water

What is treads water the third-person singular simple present indicative of?
Treads water is the third-person singular simple present indicative of tread water.

Words near treads water in the dictionary

  1. treads out
  2. treads softly
  3. treads the boards
  4. treads the stage
  5. treads upon
  6. treads water
  7. Treadway
  8. Treadways
  9. treadwear
  10. Treadwell
  11. Treadwells

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: treads 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: “treads water.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/treads_water. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.