treat

Meanings

1. 1
   verb

   provide treatment for

   The doctor treated my broken leg

2. 2
   verb

   regard or consider in a specific way

   I treated their advances as a joke.

3. 3
   verb

   engage in negotiations in order to reach an agreement

   they had to treat with the King

4. 4
   verb

   provide with choice or abundant food or drink

   Don't worry about the expensive wine--I'm treating

5. 5
   verb

   provide with a gift or entertainment

   Grandmother always treated us to the circus

6. 6
   verb

   To negotiate, discuss terms, bargain (for or with).

   Now halting a few paces before the Captains of the West he looked them up and down and laughed. 'Is there any in this rout with authority to treat with me?' he asked.

7. 7
   verb

   To discourse; to handle a subject in writing or speaking; to conduct a discussion.

   Cicero's writing treats mainly of old age and personal duty.

8. 8
   verb

   To discourse on; to represent or deal with in a particular way, in writing or speaking.

   The article treated feminism as a quintessentially modern movement.

Etymology

From Middle English treten, from Anglo-Norman treter, Old French tretier, traiter, from Latin tractāre (“to pull", "to manage”), from the past participle stem of trahere (“to draw", "to pull”).