Word.ws English Dictionary

trodden water

trodden water is the past participle 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 trodden water

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

Words near trodden water in the dictionary

  1. trodden out
  2. trodden softly
  3. trodden the boards
  4. trodden the stage
  5. trodden upon
  6. trodden water
  7. troddest
  8. trodding
  9. trode
  10. trods
  11. Troed-y-rhiw

Source and license

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