▪ I. trod, n. Now dial.
(trɒd)
Forms: 1– trod; 6 troad, trood, trodd, -e, 6–7 trode.
[OE. trod neut. (also trodu fem., acc. trode) = ON. troð treading, trampling, OHG. trota winepress (cf. mod. Norw. dial. trod fem. foot-board, step), f. ON. troða, Goth. trudan to tread, ablaut variants of WGer. tredan to tread.]
† 1. Tread, footprint, track, trace. Obs.
| Beowulf (Z.) 843 Secga æneᵹum þara þe tir-leases trode sceawode, hu he..on weᵹ þanon..feorh-lastas bær. 946–961 Laws of Edgar i. c. 5 Gyf him hundred bedrife trod on oðer hundred. a 1225 Ancr. R. 380 (MS. Titus) Þe dunes underuoð þe trodes [v.r. treden] of him suluen. c 1420 Chron. Vilod. 513 Þey nyste neuer where he was a-go, Ne of his trodus no sygne þer nasse. 1551 Sir R. Bowes in Eng. Border Hen. VIII (1847) ii. 18 They may lawfullye followe there [stolen] goodes either w{supt}{suph} a sleuthe hounde the trodd thereof, or ellse by suche other meanes as they best can devise. 1563 in Bp. W. Nicholson Leg. Marchiarum (1705) 127 Providing the Parties grieved to follow their lawful Trode with Hound and Horn, with Hue and Cry and all other accustomed manner of fresh Pursuit. |
b. hot-trod: see hot a. 12.
2. A trodden way; a footpath, path, way. dial.
| 1570 Levins Manip. 155/32 A Trod, path, callis, is, hæc. a 1575 Pilkington Expos. Neh. iv. 13 (1585) 60 God and the world cannot be friends: and that maketh so few Courtiers to tread this trodde. 1578 Paradise Dainty Devises A iij, And takes us from the trod, which guides to en[d]lesse gayne And sets us in the way that leades to lasting payne. 1596 Spenser F.Q. vi. x. 5 He chaunst to come, far from all peoples troad. 1642 H. More Song of Soul iv. xxvii, Thus in the middle trod I safely went, and fairly well have row'd. 1678 Phillips (ed. 4), Trode, (old word) signifying a path. 1825 Brockett N.C. Words, Trod, a foot path through a field. 1897 Speaker 4 Sept. 260/2 The lane and ‘trod’ must have saved me the mile or more. |
3. The tread of a wheel (tread n. 10 b). dial.
| 1797 J. Curr Coal Viewer 20 The rim [of the corf wheel] is 1½ inches broad on the trod or face. 1825 J. Nicholson Operat. Mechanic 645 Making the wheels and spokes of cast iron, with hoops, tyres, or trods, of malleable iron. |
4. Comb., as † trod-gate, † trod-way, trodden way or track.
| a 1400–50 Alexander 2988 Alexander..Ay trottis him to þe trod-gate [Dublin MS. troyde-gate] as him þe torche wyssis. 1661 J. Childrey Brit. Baconica 164 The Coals grow so near the surface..that the Cart wheels turn them up in the trod-ways. |
▪ II. trod, ppl. a.
(trɒd)
[Shortened from trodden.]
= trodden: chiefly as second element; also with adv., as trod-down.
| 1632 Milton L'Allegro 131 Then to the well-trod stage anon. 1638 W. Lisle Heliodorus x. 177 To see their trod⁓downe fellowes hurt. 1897 H. N. Howard Footsteps Proserpine 48 Mingled with elf-trod moss. |
▪ III. trod, v. Obs. or dial.
[f. trod n.]
a. trans. To follow the footprints or track of; to track, trace. b. intr. (U.S.) To pursue a path.
| a 1225 Ancr. R. 232 Betere is þe þet troddeð wel & ofsecheð wel ut his owune feblesce þen he þet meteð hu heih is þe heouene. 1619 J. Sempill Sacrilege Handled App. 49 To trode Tithes then vp as neare as may be, euen to Adam, from the Law. 1825 Jamieson s.v., To ‘trod a thief’. 1909 N. York Observer 2 Sept. 316/1 Trodding to Self-Support. The Home Mission Committee of Buffalo Presbytery has set itself earnestly to the task of bringing its dependent churches to self-support. |
▪ IV. trod
(trɒd)
pa. tense and pple. of tread v.; obs. pa. pple. of trow v.