tread the boards

Idioms  

1. 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.

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Example Sentences

See Examples For:

tread the boards

At 83, he is eager to tread the boards once again — and to continue working as steadily as he has for the last six decades.

From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 22, 2024

A half-century later, an organiser has been recalling how those who would go on to be among the world's most beloved comedy performers were lured to tread the boards.

From BBC ● Jan. 31, 2021

She handed me her new album, autographed 'To Richard, thou shalt tread the boards.

From New York Times ● Aug. 21, 2012

Inevitably, Nell Gwyn, the most famous actor in London at a moment when women were at last allowed to tread the boards, looms large here.

From The Guardian ● Jun. 4, 2012

The part was given to Westwood, a professional actor, and Otway never essayed to tread the boards again.'

From The Works of Aphra Behn, Volume III by Montague Summers