treading water
5
3.9
- noun
- /ˈtrɛdɪŋ ˈwɔːtər/
:
flotar en el agua
- "Okay," Chase said, hugging her as they treaded water easily with slow kicks.
- keep treading water
- just treading water
- stopped treading water
Examples
-
There are times when it feels like we are treading water, but things are getting better all the time.
Blog text (29) -
When they reached the fork, they stopped to rest, treading water.
Fiction book (1990) -
You will tread water for one hour.
-
I tread water for as long as I could.
-
Just treading water, really, until this final term was over and he could go home.
Fiction book (1997) -
One must tread water for 10 minutes and then swim across the lake.
-
When they surfaced, treading water, he was breathing easily, as if there had been no exertion.
Fiction book (1997) -
I floated there awkwardly, treading water and rolling with the waves.
Academic text (2004) -
Ripples were widening out from the place where Bantry's head went down, and Peter Jackson kept on treading water.
Fiction book (1990) -
After swimming for a while, I stopped to tread water and catch my breath.
Antonyms
How Hard
Surface Forms
Morphology
treading + water
The meaning 'a method of staying afloat by moving the arms and legs' is a literal, compositional combination of 'tread' (to step/move the feet) and 'water', so the action of moving in water to stay afloat is directly inferable. This is a concrete physical description (not metaphorical) and similar constructions exist cross-linguistically, so a B1 learner who knows the constituents should understand it.
Etymology
The phrase treading water comes from the real action of moving your legs and arms to keep your head above the surface. That image of treading in the water explains why it means 'to stay afloat without moving forward'.