tread·mill

(trĕd′mĭl′)

1. A wheel with steps on which a person treads, used to power machinery.

2. An exercise device consisting of a continuous moving belt on which a person or animal can walk or run while remaining in one place.

3. A monotonous routine or set of tasks.

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

treadmill

(ˈtrɛdˌmɪl)

1. (Historical Terms) Also called: treadwheel (formerly) an apparatus used to produce rotation, in which the weight of men or animals climbing steps on or around the periphery of a cylinder or wheel caused it to turn

2. a dreary round or routine

3. an exercise machine that consists of a continuous moving belt on which to walk or jog

Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

tread•mill

(ˈtrɛdˌmɪl)

n.

1. a mill powered by people or animals treading on a succession of moving steps or on a belt.

2. an exercise machine that allows the user to walk or run in place, usu. on a continuous belt.

3. any monotonous, wearisome routine in which there is little or no satisfactory progress.

[1815–25]

Treadmill

A machine with an endless belt that an animal can walk on and cause the belt to rotate, thereby converting walking motion into rotary motion. Treadmills, like Horse powers, are very old in concept. Roman relief drawings of 100 a.d. show man-powered machines that look much like those to be found today for mice to play on.

ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:

Noun	1.	treadmill - an exercise device consisting of an endless belt on which a person can walk or jog without changing place exercise device - a device designed to provide exercise for the user
	2.	treadmill - a mill that is powered by men or animals walking on a circular belt or climbing steps treadwheel, tread-wheel milling machinery, grinder, mill - machinery that processes materials by grinding or crushing
	3.	treadmill - a job involving drudgery and confinement salt mine job, line of work, occupation, business, line - the principal activity in your life that you do to earn money; "he's not in my line of business"

treadmill

noun

A habitual, laborious, often tiresome course of action:

routine, rut.

Informal: grind.

Slang: groove.

Translations

Tretmühle

futópadtaposómalom

macina di mulino

treadmill

[ˈtredmɪl] N → rueda f de andar (fig) → rutina f
back to the treadmill! → ¡volvamos al trabajo!

Collins Spanish Dictionary - Complete and Unabridged 8th Edition 2005 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1971, 1988 © HarperCollins Publishers 1992, 1993, 1996, 1997, 2000, 2003, 2005

treadmill

[ˈtrɛdmɪl] n

(= tiring task, job) → corvée f
He can expect a gruelling week on the publicity treadmill → Il peut s'attendre à une épuisante semaine de corvée promotionnelle.

(= piece of equipment) → tapis m roulant

Collins English/French Electronic Resource. © HarperCollins Publishers 2005

treadmill

n (lit) → Tretwerk nt; (fig) → Tretmühle f; (in gym) → Laufband nt; to work in the treadmill → auf dem Laufband trainieren

Collins German Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged 7th Edition 2005. © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1980 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1997, 1999, 2004, 2005, 2007

treadmill

[ˈtrɛdˌmɪl] n (fig) to go back to the treadmill → tornare alla solita routine

Collins Italian Dictionary 1st Edition © HarperCollins Publishers 1995

treadmill

n. [physical fitness] rueda de andar; tapiz rodante.

English-Spanish Medical Dictionary © Farlex 2012

treadmill

n caminadora (Amer), tapiz m or cinta rodante (esp. Esp)

Mentioned in

References in classic literature

She would, through habit, have yielded to his desire; not with any sense of submission or obedience to his compelling wishes, but unthinkingly, as we walk, move, sit, stand, go through the daily treadmill of the life which has been portioned out to us.

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And he fell back into that artificial realm of imaginary greatness, and again- as a horse walking a treadmill thinks it is doing something for itself- he submissively fulfilled the cruel, sad, gloomy, and inhuman role predestined for him.

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I wish he may do summat as they'd make him work at the treadmill! But he won't,--he's too big a raskill to let the law lay hold on him.

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Was it right, even to soothe his grief--would it be possible, even if she promised--to work as in a treadmill fruitlessly?

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Fang to the House of Correction for one month; with the appropriate and amusing remark that since he had so much breath to spare, it would be more wholesomely expended on the treadmill than in a musical instrument.

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'As for you, you wicked child,' said Miss Monflathers, turning to Nell, 'tell your mistress that if she presumes to take the liberty of sending to me any more, I will write to the legislative authorities and have her put in the stocks, or compelled to do penance in a white sheet; and you may depend upon it that you shall certainly experience the treadmill if you dare to come here again.

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And on the whole, I daresay, society was not much the worse because Ben had not six months of it at the treadmill, for his views of depredation were narrow, and the House of Correction might have enlarged them.

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workest thou in the earth so fast?" It had travelled by my side; that which I fancied I had left in Boston was here in the Vatican, and again at Milan and at Paris, and made all travelling ridiculous as a treadmill. I now require this of all pictures, that they domesticate me, not that they dazzle me.

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Jem and his whole family turn out bad, and cheat them one week, and the next they are doing the same thing for Jack; and when he goes to the treadmill, and his wife and children to the workhouse, they will be on the lookout for Bill to take his place.

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The treadmill is conducted with little or no noise; five hundred men may pick oakum in the same room, without a sound; and both kinds of labour admit of such keen and vigilant superintendence, as will render even a word of personal communication amongst the prisoners almost impossible.

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'Mother said I wasn't to,' rejoined Master Bardell, 'I'm a-goin' to have some, I am.' Cheered by this prospect, the precocious boy applied himself to his infantile treadmill, with increased vigour.

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`The Treadmill and the Poor Law are in full vigour, then?' said Scrooge.

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