Trample v.

Also 5 trampel, 6 -pell. [ME. trampel-en, trample-n, in form a frequentative of TRAMP v.¹ (see -LE 3): cf. the analogous MHG., Ger., LG. trampeln.]

  1.  intr. To tread or walk heavily; to stamp. (In early use app. not differing in sense from TRAMP v.¹)

1382.  Wyclif, Prov. vi. 13. He tramplith [1388 trampith, Vulg. terit] with the foot.

14[?].  Beryn, 1350. He trampelid fast with his feet, & al to-tare his ere.

c. 1440.  Promp. Parv., 499/1. Trampelyn (S. trampyn), tero.

1530.  Palsgr., 760/2. The boyes trampell so over my heed, that I can nat slepe.

1590.  Spenser, F. Q., I. vii. 37. His stubborne steed … Who under him did trample as the aire, And chauft that any on his backe should sitt.

1600.  Hakluyt, Voy., III. 320. Certaine others … gathered their Ananas in the Indians gardens, trampling through them without any descretion.

1891.  R. Kipling, Light that Failed, x. 207. The Keneu and the Nilghai were trampling behind him, calling for Dick.

  † b.  trans. To tread, traverse; cf. TRAMP v.¹ 5; also intr. with on. Obs. rare.

1595.  A. Fletcher, in Farr, S. P. Eliz. (1845), II. 476. Walking rightly, Still trampling vertue’s path.

1698.  Fryer, Acc. E. India & P., 128. I was the second Man [that] Trampled on the Top [of the mountain pass].

  † 2.  intr. To go or travel on foot; = TRAMP v.¹ 4; also to go between, to act as an intermediary: cf. TRAMPLER b. Obs. rare.

1624.  Gee, Foot out of Snare, xiii. 83. [He] hath rambled and trampled many miles abroad to bring nothing home.

1631.  T. Powell, Tom All Trades (1876), 155. They [civil lawyers] admit of few or no Sollicitors, to trample betweene them and the Clyent. So that the Fee comes to them immediately and with the more advantage.

  3.  intr. with on, upon, over. a. lit. To tread repeatedly upon with heavy or crushing steps. Also in indirect passive.

1577.  B. Googe, Heresbach’s Husb., II. (1586), 64. It delighteth to growe by high waies … and to be trode and trampled on.

1687.  A. Lovell, trans. Thevenot’s Trav., II. 86. For making of Terrasses, they lay … half a foot thick of Earth, but which sinks to far less being trampled and tread upon.

1798.  Monthly Mag., Dec., 438/1. The Scotch lass … kilts (tucks) her petticoats above her knees and tramples or dances upon the linen, in a tub.

1879.  H. Phillips, Notes Coins, 10. A denarius of Julius Caesar bears an elephant trampling upon a snake.

  b.  fig. To treat with contempt; to violate the claims or rights of; to domineer or tyrannize over; † to encroach upon the rights of (obs.).

1646.  J. Hall, Horæ Vac., 93. Trample not on the imperfections of any.

1656.  Earl Monm., trans. Boccalini’s Advts. fr. Parnass., I. xxiii. (1674), 26. They should be trampled upon by the most barbarous Nations of the earth.

1692.  trans. Sallust, 152. [They] trample over your Faces magnificently, boasting their chief Pontificates.

1759.  Johnson, Idler, No. 57, ¶ 3. Wit tramples upon rules.

1799.  Nelson, in Nicolas, Disp. (1845), IV. 82. I am jealous of being trampled upon.

1879.  Froude, Cæsar, viii. 70. His friends … were being trampled upon by the populace whom he despised.

  4.  trans. To tread heavily and (esp.) injuriously upon; to crush, break down, or destroy by heavy treading; also to trample down, under foot.

1530.  Palsgr., 760/2. Se howe this way is trampelled.

1596.  Mascall, Cattle, 71. To gather vp more cleane, and not for to trample so much vnder their feete.

1611.  Bible, Matt. vii. 6. Neither cast yee your pearles before swine: lest they trample them vnder their feet.

1650.  Trapp, Comm. Deut. xvii. 2. He can as easily blast an oak, as trample a mushrome.

1725.  [see TRAMPER 1 b].

1813.  Scott, Rokeby, V. xxxiii. Trampling down the dying man.

1833.  Ht. Martineau, Manch. Strike, i. 11. He would trample us under foot if he could.

1853.  Whewell, Grotius, III. 290. The lands of neutrals are not to be trampled.

1878.  Browning, Poets Croisic, xxxvii. As an ox Tramples a flower-bed in a garden.

  b.  fig.

1583.  Babington, Commandm., ii. 97. [If] our heartes were not altogether so hard trampled and beaten as they are.

1603.  Holland, Plutarch’s Mor., 982. To insult over Sparta … and at once to tread and trample under foot the high spirit and reputation of that city.

1675.  E. Wilson, Spadacrene Dunelmensis, 14. Thus they trample all Learning under foot.

1793.  Cowper, Bill Mortality, vii. Who trample order; and the day, Which God asserts His own, Dishonour.

1849.  Macaulay, Hist. Eng., ii. I. 187. The party which had been vanquished, trampled down, and … annihilated.

  5.  trans. To put in or out by tramping or stamping; esp. to trample out (fire); in quot. 1848, to make or cause by trampling.

1573–80.  Baret, Alv., T 344. To tread or trample out: to wring out, exculco.

1842.  Browning, Cristina, vii. The world’s honours, in derision, Trampled out the light for ever.

1848.  Thackeray, Van. Fair, xii. I don’t want Frederick to trample a hole in my muslin frock.

1858.  Froude, Hist. Eng., III. xiii. 113. The security against a spread of the conflagration was to trample it out upon the spot.