Adjacent Words

treadmill definitions

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WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

n
1: an exercise device consisting of an endless belt on which a person can walk or jog without changing place
2: a mill that is powered by men or animals walking on a circular belt or climbing steps [syn: treadmill, treadwheel, tread-wheel]
3: a job involving drudgery and confinement [syn: treadmill, salt mine]

Merriam Webster's

noun Date: 1822 1. a. a mill worked by persons treading on steps on the periphery of a wide wheel having a horizontal axis and used formerly in prison punishment b. a mill worked by an animal treading an endless belt c. a device having an endless belt on which an individual walks or runs in place for exercise or physiological testing 2. a wearisome or monotonous routine resembling continued activity on a treadmill <the office treadmill>

Oxford Reference Dictionary

n. 1 a device for producing motion by the weight of persons or animals stepping on movable steps on the inner surface of a revolving upright wheel. 2 monotonous routine work.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Treadmill Tread"mill`, n. A mill worked by persons treading upon steps on the periphery of a wide wheel having a horizontal axis. It is used principally as a means of prison discipline. Also, a mill worked by horses, dogs, etc., treading an endless belt.

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

(treadmills) 1. You can refer to a task or a job as a treadmill when you have to keep doing it although it is unpleasant and exhausting. Mr Stocks can expect a gruelling week on the publicity treadmill. N-COUNT: usu sing 2. A treadmill is a piece of equipment, for example an exercise machine, consisting of a wheel with steps around its edge or a continuous moving belt. The weight of a person or animal walking on it causes the wheel or belt to turn. N-COUNT

Moby Thesaurus

beat, beaten path, branks, broken record, bureaucracy, bureaucratism, chinoiserie, clockwork regularity, constancy, crank, cucking stool, daily grind, daily round, dingdong, dirty work, donkeywork, drone, drudgery, ducking stool, employment, even pace, even tenor, fag, fatigue, finger pillory, grind, groove, handiwork, handwork, humdrum, industry, invariability, irk, irksomeness, jog trot, labor, lick, lick of work, manual labor, moil, monologue, monotone, monotonousness, monotony, orderliness, pace, pillory, rat race, red tape, red-tapeism, regularity, rote, round, routine, run, rut, sameliness, sameness, scut work, singsong, slavery, smoothness, spadework, squirrel cage, stocks, stroke, stroke of work, sweat, task, tedium, the beaten track, the daily round, the round, the squirrel cage, the treadmill, the weary round, tiresome work, toil, track, travail, trebuchet, triangle, triangles, undeviation, undifferentiation, unvariation, wearisome sameness, well-worn groove, whipping post, wooden horse, work