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Glite Dictionary
🏃 An exercise machine 🔁 Boring routine 🐎 A power mill
treadmill

treadmill

3 6.9
A large wheel turned by people or animals to do work
  • noun
  • /ˈtrɛdˌmɪl/
  • Archaic
translation icon : torno accionado por personas
  • The prisoner was forced to walk for hours on a treadmill as a form of punishment.

Examples

  • We then escorted them to the testing area and up a gently sloping ramp to the top of the horse treadmill, where the testing table was located.

    Academic text (2006)

  • You can train the rat on this treadmill for two months.

  • The horse treadmill was used only as a surface on which the table was placed.

    Academic text (2006)

  • You do not, however, pay a man to walk a treadmill in 2011 and 2012.

    Blog text (23)

  • In the past, workers used a treadmill to power machinery by walking on large wheels.

  • Farmers would sometimes employ a horse to turn the treadmill, generating energy for their mills.

Synonyms

tread-wheel
vstreadmill
  • Archaic
9.9

A large wheel turned by people or animals walking inside it to power a mill

is broader, including belts or steps not only the wheel for driving machines
treadwheel
vstreadmill
  • Archaic
9.9

A large wheel people or animals walk on to power machines and lift water

is broader, covering belt or step devices as well as wheels

Compounds

treadmill test
  • Specialized
1 4.1

A medical test in which a person walks on a moving treadmill while doctors watch the heart and breathing

Surface Forms

treadmill singular
treadmills plural

Morphology

treadmill = tread + mill (transparent) = tread + mill

This sense is a literal compound meaning a mill operated by treading, which learners can derive from 'tread' + 'mill'.

Etymology

Treadmill originally named a large wheel, belt, or set of steps that people or animals walked on to make power, from tread 'to step' and mill 'a machine that does work'. That is why old treadmills were used on farms or in prisons to turn gears or grind grain by walking.