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tread water

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tread water

to be active but without making progress or falling farther behind Sales are about the same as last year, and the company is pretty much treading water.

Related vocabulary: mark time

Etymology: based on the literal meaning of tread water (to stay in one place in water by moving your legs quickly)

See also: tread, water

tread water

someone who is treading water is not doing anything to make progress (often in continuous tenses) I'm just treading water until I get an opportunity to try for a job with more responsibility.

See step on toes

See also: tread, water

tread water

Expend effort that maintains one's status but does not make much progress toward a goal, as in He was just treading water from paycheck to paycheck. This idiom alludes to the term's literal meaning, that is, "keep one's head above water by remaining upright and pumping the legs."

See also: tread, water

tread water

1. To keep the head above water while in an upright position by pumping the legs.

2. To expend effort but make little or no progress to achievement of a goal or an end.

See also: tread, water