vbl. sb. [-ING1.]
1. The action of the verb TREAD in various senses.
c. 1410. Master of Game (MS. Digby 182), xxiv. Ye may Jugge … an herte chaseable … by þe tredynge of þe grasse.
1523. Fitzherb., Husb., § 128. Well hardened with caryage and treading vpon.
1615. W. V[allans], Hon. Prentice, 33. A flat Marble stone … much defaced with treading, and neere worne out.
1709–10. Steele, Tatler, No. 126, ¶ 4. He heard … the Treading of one who approach’d.
1842. Loudon, Suburban Hort., 660. To press the soil on it firmly by treading.
b. plural.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 501/1. Tredyngys, wythe the foote.
1535. Coverdale, Song Sol., vii. 1. O how pleasaunt are thy treadinges with thy shues.
1634. Sir T. Herbert, Trav., 20. The women … equall if not exceed the men in their more laborious treadings [in dancing].
1760–72. H. Brooke, Fool of Qual. (1809), III. 89. I heard secret treadings and mutterings.
1865. Englishm. Mag., Feb., 147. With treadings slow and whisperings low Men sadly count the slain.
2. concr. Anything made by treading; spec. the footprint of a boar. See also COCK-TREADING.
1573, 1655. [see COCK-TREADING].
1575. Turberv., Venerie, 237. The footyng or print is called … of a Bore, the tracke or the Treading.
1731–3. Tull, Horse-Hoeing Husb., xx. 295. Their [horses’] Treadings are cut so small by the Coulters, that the Earth is not kept from dissolving.
3. attrib. Treading-mill = TREADMILL; treading-room, a room in which the materials of porcelain are kneaded together by treading.
1535. Coverdale, Isa. xli. 15. I wil make the a treadinge cart & a new flale, yt thou mayest throsshe & grynde the mountaynes.
1675. Cotton, Scoffer Scoft, 54. [Jove did] transform himself into a Swan, to try The treading way of Letchery.
1752. Gentl. Mag., Aug., 348. The next (on the ground floor) is the slip and treading rooms.
1830. Southey, in Q. Rev., XLIII. 50. Road-making … which serves in those islands in place of the treading-mill.
