Treat Treated Triːt People Care Parents Wood Verb

• to treat people with respect/consideration/suspicion, etc.
• treat your keyboard with care and it should last for years.
• my parents still treat me like a child.
• he was treated as a hero on his release from prison.

treat

1. to behave in a particular way towards somebody/something
• to treat people with respect/consideration/suspicion, etc.
• Treat your keyboard with care and it should last for years.
• My parents still treat me like a child.
• He was treated as a hero on his release from prison.
2. to consider something in a particular way
• I decided to treat his remark as a joke.
• All cases involving children are treated as urgent.
3. to deal with or discuss something in a particular way
• The question is treated in more detail in the next chapter.
4. to give medical care or attention to a person, an illness, an injury, etc.
• She was treated for sunstroke.
• The condition is usually treated with drugs and a strict diet.
• The hospital treated forty cases of malaria last year.
5. to use a chemical substance or process to clean, protect, preserve, etc. something
• to treat crops with insecticide
• wood treated with preservative
6. to pay for something that somebody/you will enjoy and that you do not usually have or do
• She treated him to lunch.
• Don't worry about the cost—I'll treat you.
• I'm going to treat myself to a new pair of shoes.
7. to treat somebody with no respect at all
• They treat their workers like dirt.

Extra Examples

• Chemically treated hair can become dry and brittle.
• Don’t treat me like a child!
• He is guilty and should be treated accordingly.
• He treated the idea with suspicion.
• Parents still tend to treat boys differently from girls.
• She was treated for cuts and bruises.
• The drug is effective at treating depression.
• The timber has been treated with chemicals to preserve it.
• These allegations are being treated very seriously indeed.
• They deserve to be treated with patience and respect.
• They treat their animals quite badly.
• We can treat this condition quite successfully with antibiotics.
• You need to treat this wood for woodworm.
• the tendency to treat older people as helpless and dependent
• Remember that chemically treated hair is delicate.
• The crops are treated with insecticide.
• The wood panels will become brittle if not treated with preservative.
• Water is discharged from the sewage works after being treated.
• You should treat people with more respect.

Verb Forms

• present simple I / you / we / they treat
• he / she / it treats
• past simple treated
• past participle treated
• -ing form treating

Word Origin

• Middle English (in the senses ‘negotiate’ and ‘discuss a subject’): from Old French traitier, from Latin tractare ‘handle’, frequentative of trahere ‘draw, pull’. The current noun sense dates from the mid 17th cent.