treadmill
treadmill Lexical Profile
treadmill Game Scores & Validity
• noun
An exercise machine equipped with a continuous moving belt on which a person can walk, jog, or run in place.
"She prefers running on a treadmill at the gym whenever the winter weather is too icy for outdoor jogging."
A monotonous, exhausting, and seemingly endless routine or cycle of work from which it is difficult to escape.
"After ten years in corporate consulting, he felt trapped on a relentless treadmill of tight deadlines and late nights."
Historically, a large wheel or cylinder turned by the weight of people or animals treading on steps fitted around its rim, used to power machinery or as a form of penal labor.
"In nineteenth-century prisons, inmates were often forced to walk on a giant wooden treadmill for hours to pump water or grind corn."
• Nearby Words
Word Origin & Etymology
Coined in the early 19th century from "tread" + "mill"; originally referring to a large penal wheel with steps introduced by British engineer Sir William Cubitt in 1818 to employ and punish prisoners by having them grind grain or pump water.