treat

/tɹiːt/

treat verb: to negotiate, discuss terms, bargain (for or with).

Verb

treat (third-person singular simple present treats, present participle treating, simple past and past participle treated or (Northern England, Bristol, colloquial) tret)

(intransitive) To negotiate, discuss terms, bargain (for or with).
- Now halting a few paces before the Captains of the West he looked them up and down and laughed. 'Is there any in this rout with authority to treat with me?' he asked.1955, J. R. R. Tolkien, The Return of the King, George Allen & Unwin
- After all, in this hideous war we have just passed through never forget that Halifax would have treated with Hitler: it took Churchill to refuse.1985, Lawrence Durrell, Quinx, Faber & Faber
(intransitive) To discourse; to handle a subject in writing or speaking; to conduct a discussion.
- Cicero's writing treats mainly of old age and personal duty.
- Now of love they treat.1667, John Milton, “Book X”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished...
Synonyms:

chat, discourse, parley, common, confab, confabulate, conversate, converse, convo, jaw
(transitive) To discourse on; to represent or deal with in a particular way, in writing or speaking.
- The article treated feminism as a quintessentially modern movement.
Synonyms:

bespeak, discuss, talk about, bechat, confer, betalk, chat, moot, talk over
(intransitive, obsolete, transitive) To entreat or beseech (someone).
- Only let my family live, I treat thee.
- To treate a tiran it is but thing in vayne.1515, Alexander Barclay, Eclogues
(transitive) To handle, deal with or behave towards in a specific way.
- You treated me like a fool.
- She was tempted to treat the whole affair as a joke.
Synonyms:

behandle, deal with, use
(transitive) To entertain with food or drink, especially at one's own expense; to show hospitality to; to pay for as celebration or reward.
- I treated my son to some popcorn in the interval.
- I've done so well this month, I'll treat you all to dinner (or Dinner is my treat.)
(UK) To commit the offence of providing food, drink, entertainment or provision to corruptly influence a voter.
(transitive) To care for medicinally or surgically; to apply medical care to.
- They treated me for malaria.
- We treated firefighters suffering from smoke inhalation, giving them oxygen to breathe and albuterol mist to help open their airways.2018, Sandeep Jauhar, Heart: a History, →ISBN, page 204
Synonyms:

leech, make better
(transitive) To subject to a chemical or other action; to act upon with a specific scientific result in mind.
- He treated the substance with sulphuric acid.
- I treated the photo somewhat to make the colours more pronounced.
(transitive) To provide (someone) with something special and pleasant.
- If good acting in movies is appealing and you enjoy live performances of theatre, you may soon be treated by the GMC's own endeavors in the theatrical arts.1976 December 4, “Men's Center”, in Gay Community News, volume 4, number 23, page 2
- The Chelsea captain was a virtual spectator as he was treated to his side's biggest win for almost two years as Stamford Bridge serenaded him with chants of "there's only one England captain," some 48 hours after he announced his retirement from international football.2012, Chelsea 6-0 Wolves

Noun

treat (plural treats)

An entertainment, outing, food, drink, or other indulgence provided by someone for the enjoyment of others.
- I took the kids to the zoo for a treat.
An unexpected gift, event etc., which provides great pleasure.
- It was such a treat to see her back in action on the London stage.
A snack food.
- These coconut and marshmallow treats are easy to make.
- Here are some healthy Halloween treats for ghouls and witches of all ages.
1. A snack food item designed to be given to pets.
  - I lured the cat into her carrier by throwing a couple of treats in there.
(obsolete) A parley or discussion of terms; a negotiation.
(obsolete) An entreaty.

Proper noun capitalized: Treat

Treat (plural Treats)

A surname.

treat meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Urdu and Bengali

treat in Hindi

to handle, deal with or behave towards in a specific way: उपचार करना upcār karnā
to care for medicinally or surgically: इलाज करना ilāj karnā, उपचार करना upcār karnā

treat in Tamil

சிறப்பான முறையில் நடத்து, உபசரி, சிகிச்சை செய், குணப்படுத்து, குணமாக்கு, சுகப்படுத்து

treat in Urdu

to care for medicinally or surgically: علاج کرنا 'ilāj karnā

treat in Bengali

আচরণ করা, চিকিত্সা করা, ব্যবহার করা, হস্তক্ষেপ করা, প্রভাবিত করা, ব্যবস্থা করা

More languagesFewer languages

treat in Telugu: చూసుకొను cūsukonu, చికిత్సచేయు cikitsacēyu, చికిత్సించు cikitsiñcu
treat in Malayalam: പെരുമാറുക, പരിചരിക്കുക, ചികിത്സിക്കുക, കൈകാര്യം ചെയ്യുക
treat in Kannada: ಆನಂದದಾಯಕವಾದುದು, ಔತಣ, ಸತ್ಕಾರ, ವಿನೋದಕೂಟ
treat in Odia: ଉପଚାର କରନ୍ତୁ
treat in Sanskrit: रोपयति ropayati, विधा vidhā
treat in Nepali: उपचार गर्नुहोस्
treat in Arabic: عَالَجَ ʕālaja
treat in Indonesian: traktir
treat in Thai: ทำกับ, กระทำกับ, ปฏิบัติกับ, วิงวอน wing-wɔɔn
treat in Vietnamese: đối xử

Examples of treat in a sentence

My husband treated me to a Paris holiday for our anniversary.
Rhetoric includes the earliest known theory on the proper use of metaphor; On Poetics treats the role of symbolism in drama and poetry.1981, Aristotle, translated by W. Rhys Roberts and Ingram Bywater, Rhetoric and On Poetics, Pennsylvania: The Franklin Library, →OL, A Note...

All 40 example sentences with treat

Synonyms of treat

14 more synonymsFewer synonyms

All synonyms of treat

Forms of treat

Verb
third-person singular present	treats
present participle	treating
past participle	treated
past	treated
past participle Northern England error-unknown-tag (colloquial)	tret
past Northern England error-unknown-tag (colloquial)	tret
second-person singular present (archaic)	treatest
second-person singular past (archaic)	treatedst
third-person singular present (archaic)	treateth
Noun
plural	treats
Proper noun
plural	Treats

Past tense of treat: treated

Plural of treat: treats

Origin of treat

From Middle English treten, from Anglo-Norman treter, Old French tretier, traiter, from Latin tractāre (“to pull", "to manage”), from the past participle stem of trahere (“to draw", "to pull”).

Phrases with treat

Words that rhyme with treat

48 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about treat

What does treat mean?: Treat means to negotiate, discuss terms, bargain (for or with).
What is treat in Hindi?: Treat in Hindi is उपचार करना (upcār karnā), इलाज करना (ilāj karnā). See Treat meaning in Hindi.
How do you use treat in a sentence?: My husband treated me to a Paris holiday for our anniversary.
What part of speech is treat?: Treat can be a verb, a noun or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce treat?: Treat is pronounced /tɹiːt/.
What is the past tense of treat?: The past tense of treat is treated.

Words near treat in the dictionary

Adapted from Wiktionary: treat (page history and authors); Treat (page history and authors); treat (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); treat (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); treat (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); treat (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); treat (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); रोपयति (Sanskrit) (page history and authors); treat (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: 2026-09-02

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