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View synonyms for treadle

treadle

[ tred-l ]

noun

  1. a lever or the like worked by continual action of the foot to impart motion to a machine.
  2. a platform, as on a bus or trolleycar, for opening an exit door.


verb (used without object)

, trea·dled, trea·dling.
  1. to work a treadle.

treadle

/ ˈtrɛdəl /

noun

    1. a rocking lever operated by the foot to drive a machine
    2. ( as modifier )

      a treadle sewing machine

“Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged” 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

verb

  1. to work (a machine) with a treadle
“Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged” 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
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Derived Forms

  • ˈtreadler, noun
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Other Words From

  • tread·ler [tred, -ler], noun
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Word History and Origins

Origin of treadle1

before 1000; Middle English tredel stairstep, Old English. See tread, -le
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Word History and Origins

Origin of treadle1

Old English tredel , from trǣde something firm, from tredan to tread
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Example Sentences

If you have room, there are treadle feeders that are rat resistant you can use in the coop.

From Salon

Imitating the English, whose male weaving guilds had produced fine cloths on foot-powered treadle looms since the 1300s, the Danes trained North Atlantic men to weave on these faster looms.

Dozens of mechanized needles pumping up and down sounded a continuous clickety-clack, clickety-clack over the rumble of foot treadles and the whir of spinning spools of thread.

By practicing those designs, his father said, he could learn the basic techniques for the family’s two-meter-wide wooden treadle loom.

Puzzles for adults came into fashion about a century later, spreading further when advances in the lithographic press and the foot-powered treadle jigsaw made them easier and cheaper to produce.

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treadtread lightly