ppl. a. [Late ME. troden, taking the place of OE. and ME. treden, pa. pple. of TREAD; imitating such pa. pples. as holpen, stolen, from help, steal.] That has been walked, stepped, or trampled upon (also fig.): see senses of TREAD). Also in comb., as DOWN-TRODDEN.
1545. Elyot, Pressatus, oppressed, charged, troden downe.
1590. Spenser, F. Q., I. iii. 10. The troden gras, In which the tract of peoples footing was.
1700. Dryden, Ovid’s Met., Acis, Polyphemus, etc., 94. More revengeful than a trodden snake.
1760–72. H. Brooke, Fool of Qual. (1859), I. p. x. I was as a trodden worm, and turned.
a. 1849. J. C. Mangan, Poems (1859), 421. There’s hope, too, for his trodden thralls.
b. Of a path, etc.: Formed or marked by treading; beaten.
1576. Fleming, Panopl. Epist., 226, margin. Pouertie the troden path to vertuous conuersation.
1615. W. Lawson, Country House. Gard. (1626), 19. To walke in the plaine trodden path.
1870. Morris, Earthly Par., III. IV. 34. Now by trodden way and wild Goes Heimir long.
