trodden, ppl. a.
(ˈtrɒd(ə)n)
[Late ME. troden, taking the place of OE. and ME. treden, pa. pple. of tread; imitating such pa. pples. as holpen, stolen, from help, steal.]
That has been walked, stepped, or trampled upon (also fig.): see senses of tread v. Also in comb, as down-trodden.
| 1545 Elyot, Pressatus, oppressed, charged, troden downe. 1590 Spenser F.Q. i. iii. 10 The troden gras, In which the tract of peoples footing was. 1700 Dryden Ovid's Met., Acis, Polyphemus, etc. 94 More revengeful than a trodden snake. 1760–72 H. Brooke Fool of Qual. (1890) I. p. x, I was as a trodden worm, and turned. a 1849 J. C. Mangan Poems (1859) 421 There's hope, too, for his trodden thralls. |
b. Of a path, etc.: Formed or marked by treading; beaten.
| 1576 Fleming Panopl. Epist. 226 margin, Pouertie the troden path to vertuous conuersation. 1615 W. Lawson Country Housew. Gard. (1626) 19 To walke in the plaine trodden path. 1870 Morris Earthly Par. III. iv. 34 Now by trodden way and wild Goes Heimir long. |