retread
/ɹiːˈtɹɛd/
Word Rarity
Very rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 2.11 in modern English
8
Scrabble Score
7
Letters
2
Syllables
5
Unique Chars
Meaning
verb
To renew the tread of a tyre, providing a cheaper alternative to buying a new tyre, but potentially introducing a risk of premature failure if performed improperly.
British usage
noun
A return over ground previously covered; a retraversal or repetition.
Example Sentences
- "There was no evidence to suggest that the fact that both tyres had been retreaded 3 times was a factor in the failure occurrence. This type of aircraft tyre (Type VII) is routinely retreaded 6 times or more before being taken out of service."
- "In Our War the Retreads usually slinked in over-aged, over-weight and overcautious in the face of a new generation."
- "They were retreads and recruits under a small cadre of Regular Army officers and noncoms."
- "We retreads upset everybody."
- "As with the 100th Division, many of the replacements joining the 103d were "retreads" from the technical services or antiaircraft and aviation troops..."
- "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."
Etymology
Usage
- British usage
- Slang
- Transitive verb