Tread vs Stalk - What's the difference?
tread | stalk |
To step or walk (on or over something); to trample.
* Alexander Pope
* Milton
To step or walk upon.
To beat or press with the feet.
To go through or accomplish by walking, dancing, etc.
* Beaumont and Fletcher
* Shakespeare
To crush under the foot; to trample in contempt or hatred; to subdue.
* Bible, Psalms xliv. 5
To copulate; said of (especially male) birds.
(of a male bird) To copulate with.
(tread)
A step.
A manner of stepping.
* Tennyson
(obsolete) A way; a track or path.
The grooves carved into the face of a tire, used to give the tire traction.
The grooves on the bottom of a shoe or other footwear, used to give grip or traction.
The horizontal part of a step in a flight of stairs.
The sound made when someone or something is walking.
* 1886 , (Robert Louis Stevenson), (Strange Case Of Dr Jekyll And Mr Hyde)
* 1896 , (Bret Harte), Barker's Luck and Other Stories
(biology) The chalaza of a bird's egg; the treadle.
The act of copulation in birds.
(fortification) The top of the banquette, on which soldiers stand to fire over the parapet.
A bruise or abrasion produced on the foot or ankle of a horse that interferes, or strikes its feet together.
The stem or main axis of a plant, which supports the seed-carrying parts.
:
*
*:Three chairs of the steamer type, all maimed, comprised the furniture of this roof-garden, withon one of the copings a row of four red clay flower-pots filled with sun-baked dust from which gnarled and rusty stalks thrust themselves up like withered elfin limbs.
The petiole, pedicel, or peduncle of a plant.
Something resembling the stalk of a plant, such as the stem of a quill.
:(Grew)
(lb) An ornament in the Corinthian capital resembling the stalk of a plant, from which the volutes and helices spring.
One of the two upright pieces of a ladder.
:(Chaucer)
(label)
#A stem or peduncle, as in certain barnacles and crinoids.
#The narrow basal portion of the abdomen of a hymenopterous insect.
#The peduncle of the eyes of decapod crustaceans.
(lb) An iron bar with projections inserted in a core to strengthen it; a core arbor.
(lb) To approach slowly and quietly in order not to be discovered when getting closer.
*Sir (Walter Scott) (1771-1832)
*:As for shooting a man from behind a wall, it is cruelly like to stalking a deer.
*
*:But they had already discovered that he could be bullied, and they had it their own way; and presently Selwyn lay prone upon the nursery floor, impersonating a ladrone while pleasant shivers chased themselves over Drina, whom he was stalking .
(lb) To (try to) follow or contact someone constantly, often resulting in harassment.(w)
:
(lb) To walk slowly and cautiously; to walk in a stealthy, noiseless manner.
*(John Dryden) (1631-1700)
*:[Bertran] stalks close behind her, like a witch's fiend, / Pressing to be employed.
:(Shakespeare)
(lb) To walk behind something, such as a screen, for the purpose of approaching game; to proceed under cover.
*(Francis Bacon) (1561-1626)
*:The king"I must stalk ," said he.
*(Michael Drayton) (1563-1631)
*:One underneath his horse, to get a shoot doth stalk .
A particular episode of trying to follow or contact someone.
A hunt (of a wild animal).
To walk haughtily.
* Dryden
* Addison
* Mericale
In intransitive terms the difference between tread and stalk
is that tread is to copulate; said of (especially male) birds while stalk is to walk haughtily.In transitive terms the difference between tread and stalk
is that tread is to step or walk upon while stalk is to (try to) follow or contact someone constantly, often resulting in harassment.Wptread
English
Etymology 1
From (etyl) treden, from (etyl) {{term, tredan, , to tread, step on, trample, traverse, pass over, enter upon, roam through , lang=ang}}, from (etyl) , Norwegian treda.Verb
- He trod back and forth wearily.
- Don't tread on the lawn.
- Fools rush in where angels fear to tread .
- ye that stately tread , or lowly creep
- Actors tread the boards.
- to tread''' a path; to '''tread''' land when too light; a well-'''trodden path
- I am resolved to forsake Malta, tread a pilgrimage to fair Jerusalem.
- They have measured many a mile, / To tread a measure with you on this grass.
- Through thy name will we tread them under that rise up against us.
- (Shakespeare)
- (Chaucer)
Usage notes
* "(term)" is not commonly used in the UK and is less common in the US as well. It is apparently used more often in (tread water). * (term) is sometimes used as a past and past participle, especially in the US.Derived terms
* betread * * tread water * untrod * treading on eggshellsUse of expression in delicate situations; be nice
Etymology 2
From the above verb.Noun
(en noun)- She is coming, my own, my sweet; / Were it ever so airy a tread , / My heart would hear her and beat.
- (Shakespeare)
- The steps fell lightly and oddly, with a certain swing, for all they went so slowly; it was different indeed from the heavy creaking tread of Henry Jekyll. Utterson sighed. "Is there never anything else?" he asked.
- But when, after a singularly heavy tread and the jingle of spurs on the platform, the door flew open to the newcomer, he seemed a realization of our worst expectations.
Synonyms
* (horizontal part of a step) runAntonyms
* (horizontal part of a step) rise, riserDerived terms
*See also
* (wikipedia)Anagrams
*References
stalk
English
(wikipedia stalk)Etymology 1
From (etyl) stalke, diminutive of stale'' 'ladder upright, stalk', from (etyl) stalu 'wooden upright', from (etyl) ).Noun
(en noun)Etymology 2
From (etyl) stalken, from (etyl) -).Robert K. Barnhart and Sol Steinmetz, eds., ''Chambers Dictionary of Etymology , s.v. "stalk2" (New York: Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd., 2006), 1057. Alternate etymology connects (etyl) 'to steal'.Verb
(en verb)Conjugation
(en-conj-simple)Noun
(en noun)References
Etymology 3
1530, 'to walk haughtily', perhaps from (etyl) 'high, lofty, steep, stiff'; see aboveVerb
(en verb)- With manly mien he stalked along the ground.
- Then stalking through the deep, / He fords the ocean.
- I forbear myself from entering the lists in which he has long stalked alone and unchallenged.