caterpillar tread
- noun
- /ˈkætərˌpɪlər trɛd/
- Specialized
:
tread de oruga
- Bulldozers equipped with caterpillar treads can effectively navigate muddy construction sites.
Examples
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The military tank moved steadily over the rough terrain thanks to its caterpillar tread.
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It ran on caterpillar treads and looked like a flatbed truck put together in reverse, with the high cab at the back.
Fiction book (2000) -
And maybe a chicken hawk will swoop down and grab him in its talons while he's up there and then take him up into the sky and drop him from a very high height into a deep quarry, where heaving mining equipment with caterpillar treads will repeatedly run over its broken corpse.
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Farmers often use vehicles with caterpillar treads to plow fields and ensure better traction.
Synonyms
A continuous metal or rubber belt around a vehicle's wheels that helps it move over rough ground
How Wide
- Specialized
37
3.7
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning is directly compositional: 'caterpillar' (a heavy tracked machine) combined with 'tread' (the surface contacting the ground) yields the continuous track used by such machines. This regular noun–noun compounding follows common English patterns, so a B1 learner who knows both constituents should be able to infer the MWE's meaning.
Etymology
Caterpillar tread comes from the insect caterpillar, whose many small legs and joined body parts seem to crawl in a long line, and from tread, the part that touches the ground. That's why the name gives the image of a long metal 'belt' that goes around wheels on a 'tank' or machine to help it 'move' over rough ground.