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retread - What does it mean?

Definition of 'retread'

English

Etymology 1

From (re-) + (noun)

Verb

(en-verb)
  • To replace the traction-providing surface of a vehicle that employs tires, tracks or treads.

    • Noun

    (en-noun)
  • A used tire whose surface, the tread, has been replaced to extend its life and use.
  • (military|slang) a person who re-entered military service in World War Two after serving in World War One.
  • * 1950 , Air Force Association, United States Army, Air Force Magazine :
    • In Our War the Retreads usually slinked in over-aged, over-weight and overcautious in the face of a new generation.
  • * 1971 , Brian Garfield, The thousand-mile war: World War II in Alaska and the Aleutians :
    • They were retreads and recruits under a small cadre of Regular Army officers and noncoms.
  • * 1976 , James Jones, Art Weithas, WW II: a chronicle of soldiering :
    • We retreads upset everybody.
  • * 2006 , Keith E Bonn, When the Odds Were Even :
    • As with the 100th Division, many of the replacements joining the 103d were "retreads" from the technical services or antiaircraft and aviation troops...

    Etymology 2

    From (re-) + (tread) (verb)

    Alternative forms

    * re-tread

    Verb

  • to tread again, to walk along again, to follow a path again.
  • * 1818 , Mary Shelley, Frankenstein
    • As a child I had not been content with the results promised by the modern professors of natural science. With a confusion of ideas only to be accounted for by my extreme youth and my want of a guide on such matters, I had retrod the steps of knowledge along the paths of time and exchanged the discoveries of recent inquirers for the dreams of forgotten alchemists. Besides, I had a contempt for the uses of modern natural philosophy.

    Noun

    (en-noun)
  • (sometimes|figurative) A return over ground previously covered; a retraversal or repetition.
  • * 1998 , Frank Rich, Hot seat: theater criticism for the New York times, 1980-1993
    • But The West Side Waltz is otherwise a tedious retread of Mr. Thompson's previous effort, On Golden Pond.

    Anagrams

    * * English heteronyms

    Similar to 'retread'

    retired, retorted, retarded, radared, redried, retried, retard, rethread, redward, retarted, routered, retrod, rotarod, ratardid, rathered, ruddered, retruded, retraded