treading

Every so often one of them flew back to check on the Magician, who was doing what he called treading water, though it looked exactly like swimming in place.

Harpy Thyme Anthony, Piers, 1934- 1994

Very, very careful treading is necessary here — but speed is also of the essence.

New News: Deconstructing the newspaper « BuzzMachine 2006

Erdrich is again treading on familiar ground, considering questions of religion and identity while adding another complex layer to the life of one of her characters.

An Emissary of the Between-World 2001

Moralists say a great deal about pain treading so very closely on the heels of pleasure in this life, but they are not always wise or grateful enough to speak of the pleasure which springs out of pain.

Juliana Horatia Ewing and Her Books 1885

And, because he will not serve about the corn, he is not so well fed as the tame ox, whose mouth was not to be muzzled in treading out the corn; but therefore he will not draw the plough, because he that made him never designed him for it.

Commentary on the Whole Bible Volume III (Job to Song of Solomon) 1721

The beasts that were employed in treading out the corn (for that way they took instead of threshing it) were allowed to feed while they did the work, so that the more work they did the more food they had; therefore let the elders that labour in the word and doctrine be well provided for; for the labourer is worthy of his reward (Matt.x. 10), and there is all the reason in the world that he should have it.

Commentary on the Whole Bible Volume VI (Acts to Revelation) 1721

11 Forasmuch therefore as your treading is upon the poor, and ye take from him burdens of wheat: ye have built houses of hewn stone, but ye shall not dwell in them; ye have planted pleasant vineyards, but ye shall not drink wine of them.

Commentary on the Whole Bible Volume IV (Isaiah to Malachi) 1721

While Uncle Sam in treading and sinking in quicksand and Iran is doing most of the yapping, Russia and China seems more calculating and will have plenty to say before ‘it’s’ over.

Think Progress » Russia Playing a Dangerous Game That Could Spark The Next War 2006

Stanyhurst, whom Thomas Nash described as treading 'a foul, lumbering, boistrous, wallowing measure, in his translation of

The Aeneid of Virgil Translated into English Verse by E. Fairfax Taylor 70 BC-19 BC Virgil 1902

The purity of the air in these exalted regions, and the lightness of my own spirits, almost seized me with the idea of treading in that element.

Dreams Waking Thoughts and Incidents Beckford, William 1891