retread

re- +‎ tread (“grooves carved into the face of a tire”, noun)

• (verb) enPR: rē-trĕdʹ, IPA^(key): /ɹiːˈtɹɛd/

  • Audio (UK)

    (file)

• (noun) enPR: rēʹtrĕd, IPA^(key): /ˈɹiː.tɹɛd/

  • Audio (UK)

    (file)

• Rhymes: -ɛd

retread (third-person singular simple present retreads, present participle retreading, simple past and past participle retreaded)

1. To replace the traction-providing surface of a vehicle that employs tires, tracks or treads.
2. (chiefly UK) 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.
   • 1993 June, Presidency of Civil Aviation of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, “1.12.13.6.3 Visual and Microscopic Examinations”, in McDonnell-Douglas DC-8-61, C-GMXQ, accident at King Abdulaziz International Airport, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, on 11 July 1991‎, archived from the original on 14 May 2022:

     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. The criteria for final rejection for retreading, except for severe cuts or impact damage, is advanced carcass structural deterioration. Such structural deterioration, symptomised by propagating interply separation, should be evaluated at each retread level, by the retreader, using nondestructive testing methods such as Air Needle and/or Holography techniques. Detailed visual examinations of the delaminated ply surfaces on the tyre remnants revealed no evidence of previous internal separations. There were also no indications of ply separation at the old and new tread interface on either tyre.

• (tyre retread): recap (US)

retread (plural retreads)

1. A used tire whose surface, the tread, has been replaced to extend its life and use.
2. (military, slang) A person who re-entered military service in World War II after serving in World War I.
   • 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...

re- +‎ tread (verb)

• re-tread

• enPR: rē-trĕdʹ, IPA^(key): /ɹiːˈtɹɛd/

• Audio (AU)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɛd

retread (third-person singular simple present retreads, present participle retreading, simple past retrod, past participle retrodden)

1. (transitive) 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.

retread (plural retreads)

1. (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.

   • 2022 May 21, Peter Bradshaw, “Triangle of Sadness review – heavy-handed satire on the super-rich loses its shape”, in The Guardian‎:

     It uses a howitzer to shoot drugged fish in a barrel, inserts flabby lite-surrealism where the comedy might otherwise go and the plot turns out to be a retread of JM Barrie’s stage-play The Admirable Crichton.

• rerated, retrade, treader