Word.ws English Dictionary

trodden lightly

trodden lightly is the past participle 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 trodden lightly

What is trodden lightly the past participle of?
Trodden lightly is the past participle of tread lightly.

Words near trodden lightly in the dictionary

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

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: trodden 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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