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tread water
Idioms and Phrases
Expend effort that maintains one's status but does not make much progress toward a goal, as in He was just treading water from paycheck to paycheck . This idiom alludes to the term's literal meaning, that is, “keep one's head above water by remaining upright and pumping the legs.”Example Sentences
As the music climaxes, he kisses his friend full on the mouth while they both tread water naked.
He seemed to think that after that boffo first debate, he could just tread water.
Democrats will have no mandate to do much besides tread water for four years.
And Dick had sense enough to take the advice, and tread water quietly till the boat should come.
He began to tread water while he tried to lift his head and gaze across the waves.
Margery, seized by a panic, forgot to tread water and went clear to the bottom.
He was full of life, he understood how to swim, to tread water, to turn over and tumble in the flood.
When you tread water you force the water down with your hands and feet and so send your body, or keep it, up.
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Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
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