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Glite Dictionary
🦶 A foot lever 🦶 To use foot lever 👣 To press by foot
to treadle

to treadle

8.6
To press down repeatedly with the foot to mix or shape material
  • verb
  • /ˈtrɛdəl/
  • Specialized
translation icon : pisar
  • The traditional potter treadles the clay to prepare it for shaping.

Examples

  • Each morning, she treadled the damp earth, readying it for the bricks to be molded.

  • He had to treadle the clay to ensure it was perfectly mixed before shaping.

  • As part of the process, the worker must treadle over the mixture to remove lumps.

  • She treadles the sewing machine carefully.

  • I love to treadle when making my quilts.

  • The artist skillfully treadled the foot pedal to control the weaving machine.

  • As she treadled the sewing machine, fabric flowed smoothly under her hands.

Synonyms

to tread
vsto treadle
93 3.0

To step on something with your foot, often pressing down

focuses on repeated pressing in a mechanical or shaping process rather than general stepping
to treadling
vsto treadle
  • Specialized
7.8

To operate a machine by pressing a foot pedal repeatedly

is used more broadly for repeated foot pressing, not only running machines

Surface Forms

treadle infinitive
treadled past
treadled past participle
treadling present participle
treadles third person singular

Morphology

treadle = tread (semi-transparent) = tread + le

Formed from 'tread' + frequentative/iterative '-le' meaning repeated stepping or pressing; the iterative nuance of '-le' may not be obvious to learners.

Etymology

Treadle comes from tread meaning 'to step' or 'stamp'. So to treadle can also mean to press or step on a material again and again with your foot to shape or mix it.