trample

English

Etymology

From Middle English trample, from tramp +‎ -le (frequentative).

Attested in the original sense 'walk heavily' since early 14th century.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈtɹæmpəl/

• Audio (Southern England)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -æmpəl

Verb

trample (third-person singular simple present tramples, present participle trampling, simple past and past participle trampled)

1. (transitive) To crush something by walking on it.

   to trample grass or flowers

   • c. 1587–1588, [Christopher Marlowe], Tamburlaine the Great. The First Part , 2nd edition, part 1, London: Richard Iones, , published 1592, →OCLC; reprinted as Tamburlaine the Great (A Scolar Press Facsimile), Menston, Yorkshire, London: Scolar Press, 1973, →ISBN, Act III, scene iii:

     Our conquering ſwords ſhal marſhal vs the way
     UUe vſe to martch vpon the ſlaughtered foe:
     Trampling their bowels with our horſes hoofes: […]

   • 1611, The Holy Bible,  (King James Version), London: Robert Barker, , →OCLC, Matthew 7:6:

     neither caſt ye your pearles before ſwine: leſt they trample them vnder their feete, […]

   • 1963, Margery Allingham, “Foreword”, in The China Governess: A Mystery, London: Chatto & Windus, →OCLC:

     Everything a living animal could do to destroy and to desecrate bed and walls had been done. […]   A canister of flour from the kitchen had been thrown at the looking-glass and lay like trampled snow over the remains of a decent blue suit with the lining ripped out which lay on top of the ruin of a plastic wardrobe.

2. (by extension) To treat someone harshly.
3. (intransitive) To walk heavily and destructively.
   • June 9, 1960, Charles Dickens, All the Year Round

     horses proud of the crimson and yellow shaving-brushes on their heads, and of the sharp tingling bells upon their harness that chime far along the glaring white road along which they trample

4. (by extension) To cause emotional injury as if by trampling.
   • 1782, William Cowper, “Conversation”, in Poems, London: J Johnson, , →OCLC:

     to trample on our Maker's laws

Synonyms

• (crush or stomp underfoot): calcate (obsolete)

Translations

Noun

trample (plural tramples)

1. A heavy stepping.
   • 2015, Lucy Corne, Josephine Quintero, Lonely Planet Canary Islands:

     Newly harvested grapes are poured into a vast vat for everyone to have a good trample upon […]

2. The sound of heavy footsteps.

Translations

Anagrams

• Lampert, Templar, templar

German

Pronunciation

• Audio

  (file)

Verb

trample

1. inflection of trampeln:
   1. first-person singular present
   2. singular imperative
   3. first/third-person singular subjunctive I

Hunsrik

Etymology

From Middle High German *trampen, itself borrowed from Middle Low German trampen, from Old Saxon *trampan, from Proto-West Germanic *trampan (“to step”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈtramplə/

Verb

trample

1. to tread
2. to trample

Conjugation

Further reading

• Online Hunsrik Dictionary