retread

English

Etymology 1

re- + tread (grooves carved into the face of a tire, noun)

Pronunciation

  • (verb) enPR: rē-trĕdʹ, IPA(key): /ɹiːˈtɹɛd/
  • (noun) enPR: rēʹtrĕd, IPA(key): /ˈɹiːtɹɛd/
  • Rhymes: -ɛd

Verb

retread (third-person singular simple present retreads, present participle retreading, simple past and past participle retreaded)

  1. To replace the traction-providing surface of a vehicle that employs tires, tracks or treads.
  2. (Britain) To renew the tread of a tyre, providing a cheap, and possibly dangerous, product.
Synonyms
  • (tyre retread): recap (US)

Noun

retread (plural retreads)

  1. A used tire whose surface, the tread, has been replaced to extend its life and use.
  2. (military, slang) a person who re-entered military service in World War Two after serving in World War One.
    • 1950, Air Force Association, United States Army, Air Force Magazine:
      In Our War the Retreads usually slinked in over-aged, over-weight and overcautious in the face of a new generation.
    • 1971, Brian Garfield, The thousand-mile war: World War II in Alaska and the Aleutians:
      They were retreads and recruits under a small cadre of Regular Army officers and noncoms.
    • 1976, James Jones, Art Weithas, WW II: a chronicle of soldiering:
      We retreads upset everybody.
    • 2006, Keith E Bonn, When the Odds Were Even:
      As with the 100th Division, many of the replacements joining the 103d were "retreads" from the technical services or antiaircraft and aviation troops...

Etymology 2

re- + tread (verb)

Alternative forms

  • re-tread

Pronunciation

  • enPR: rē-trĕdʹ, IPA(key): /ɹiːˈtɹɛd/
  • Rhymes: -ɛd

Verb

retread (third-person singular simple present retreads, present participle retreading, simple past retrod, past participle retrodden)

  1. (transitive) to tread again, to walk along again, to follow a path again.
    • 1818, Mary Shelley, Frankenstein
      As a child I had not been content with the results promised by the modern professors of natural science. With a confusion of ideas only to be accounted for by my extreme youth and my want of a guide on such matters, I had retrod the steps of knowledge along the paths of time and exchanged the discoveries of recent inquirers for the dreams of forgotten alchemists. Besides, I had a contempt for the uses of modern natural philosophy.

Noun

retread (plural retreads)

  1. (sometimes figuratively) A return over ground previously covered; a retraversal or repetition.
    • 1998, Frank Rich, Hot seat: theater criticism for the New York times, 1980-1993
      But The West Side Waltz is otherwise a tedious retread of Mr. Thompson's previous effort, On Golden Pond.

Anagrams

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