tread the boards

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tread the boards

To be a stage actor; to act in a stage play. I've been treading the boards for nearly 30 years, and while I haven't grown rich from it, I've always loved it. He always yearned to tread the boards on Broadway.
See also: board, tread
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms. © 2015 Farlex, Inc, all rights reserved.

tread the boards

Act on the stage, as in Her main ambition was to tread the boards in a big city. This idiom uses boards in the sense of "a theatrical stage," a usage dating from the mid-1700s. It dates from the mid-1800s but was preceded by the idiom tread the stage, first recorded in 1691.
See also: board, tread
The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer. Copyright © 2003, 1997 by The Christine Ammer 1992 Trust. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

tread (or walk) the boards

appear on stage as an actor. informal
See also: board, tread
Farlex Partner Idioms Dictionary © Farlex 2017

ˌtread the ˈboards

(humorous) be an actor: He has recently been treading the boards in a new play at the National.
The boards refers to the stage of a theatre.
See also: board, tread
Farlex Partner Idioms Dictionary © Farlex 2017

tread the boards

To act on the stage: "We who tread the boards are not the only players of parts in this world" (John Fowles).
See also: board, tread
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
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References in periodicals archive ?
She's already proudly seen her children follow in her footsteps, with son Richard on the Street as troubled teen Craig and daughter Emily treading the boards.
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Retired accountant Margaret Boschi, 73, has been treading the boards since a child, performing in draughty village halls to scant audiences.
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A THEATRE group will be treading the boards at Solihull Arts Complex for a family favourite show.
Op stars on stage
Retired accountant and mother-of-three Margaret Boschi, 73, has been treading the boards since she was eight.
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CELEBRITY cook Delia Smith has revealed she once wanted to be an actress treading the boards of the Royal Shakespeare Theatre.
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Before treading the boards, cast members Gemma Craven, James Hornby, Jackie Lyle and Robert Hudson appeared in full costume at The Boathouse in Durham.
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"Theatre's something she's interested in and she could well be treading the boards in the near future."
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Gillian -who has been treading the boards on the west end stage -was voted the world's most fanciable woman during her days as alien-chasing Dana Scully.
Alien look for Scully
The Merthyr Tydfil teenager will be treading the boards at the Lyric Theatre, Hammersmith, in their stage adaptation of Kes, the story of a Yorkshire boy who trains a kestrel in a bid to escape the monotony of working class life.
LARA, LARA TALENT; Merthyr teenager wins coveted National Youth Theatre place
Talented young actors are treading the boards in celebration of the Bard.
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Members of the youth section of the long established Nuneaton Amateur Operatic and Dramatic Society will be treading the boards of Bedworth Civic Hall next month.
Production hopes to make it Big
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