treat
[verb]
Synonyms:
- handle, act towards, behave towards, consider, deal with, look upon, manage, regard, use
- attend to, care for, nurse
- entertain, lay on, provide, regale, stand (informal)
[noun]
Synonyms:
- entertainment, banquet, celebration, feast, gift, party, refreshment
- pleasure, delight, enjoyment, fun, joy, satisfaction, surprise, thrill

---

Related Idioms: act with regard to, conduct oneself toward, do by, go treat, pick up the tab for, stand treat
Related Words: consider, study, weigh, deliberate, reason, think, conduct, do with, manage, wield, regard, respect, account, hold, appraise, estimate, evaluate, rate, value, stake, attend, care (for), minister (to), nurse

---

English Thesaurus: behave, act, treat, conform, conduct yourself, ...

[TahlilGaran] English Synonym Dictionary ▲

I. treat¹ S2 W1 /triːt/ verb [transitive]
[Word Family: noun: treat, treatment, mistreatment; verb: treat, mistreat; adjective: untreated, treatable]
[Date: 1200-1300; Language: Old French; Origin: traitier, from Latin tractare; ⇒ tractable]

1. BEHAVE TOWARDS SOMEBODY/SOMETHING [always + adverb/preposition] to behave towards someone or something in a particular way ⇒ treatment
treat somebody like/as something
She treats me like one of the family.
Penny doesn’t think her co-workers treat her as an equal.
He treated his automobiles almost as tenderly as he did his wife.
badly treated/well treated
The prisoners were well treated by their guards.
treat somebody with respect/contempt/courtesy etc
Despite her seniority, Margot was never treated with much respect.
treat somebody like dirt/a dog (=treat someone unkindly and without respect)
I don’t know why he stays with her – she treats him like dirt.

2. DEAL WITH SOMETHING [always + adverb/preposition] to deal with, regard, or consider something in a particular way ⇒ treatment
treat something as something
Please treat this information as completely confidential.
She treats everything I say as a joke.
treat something favourably/seriously/carefully etc
Any complaint about safety standards must be treated very seriously.

3. ILLNESS/INJURY to try to cure an illness or injury by using drugs, hospital care, operations etc ⇒ treatment:
It was difficult to treat patients because of a shortage of medicine.
treat somebody/something with something
Nowadays, malaria can be treated with drugs.

4. BUY SOMETHING FOR SOMEBODY to buy or do something special for someone that you know they will enjoy
treat somebody to something
We treated Mom to lunch at the Savoy.
I treated myself to a new dress.

5. PROTECT/CLEAN to put a special substance on something or use a chemical process in order to protect, clean, or preserve it ⇒ treatment:
sewage treated so that it can be used as fertilizer
⇒ trick or treat

[TahlilGaran] Dictionary of Contemporary English ▲

II. treat² S3 noun
[Word Family: noun: treat, treatment, mistreatment; verb: treat, mistreat; adjective: untreated, treatable]

1. [countable] something special that you give someone or do for them because you know they will enjoy it
as a treat
Steven took his son to a cricket match as a birthday treat.

2. [singular] an event that gives you a lot of pleasure and is usually unexpected:
When we were kids, a trip to the beach was a real treat.

3. [countable] a special food that tastes good, especially one that you do not eat very often:
The cafe serves an assortment of gourmet treats.

4. my treat spoken used to tell someone that you will pay for something such as a meal for them:
Let’s go out to lunch – my treat.

5. go down a treat British English informal if something goes down a treat, people like it very much:
That new vegetarian restaurant seems to be going down a treat.

6. look/work a treat British English informal to look very good or work very well:
The sports ground looked a treat, with all the flags flying.

[TahlilGaran] Dictionary of Contemporary English ▲

treat
noun
ADJ. great, real, special | little I like to give the girls a little treat every now and then.
occasional, rare | anniversary, birthday, Christmas, holiday | family | tasty Snails are a tasty treat for hedgehogs.
VERB + TREAT give sb | deserve
PREP. as/for a ~ We took the kids to the zoo for a special treat.
PHRASES be in for a treat/have a treat in store If their latest album is half as good as their last one, we've a real treat in store.

[TahlilGaran] Collocations Dictionary ▲

treat
verb
I. handle sb/sth in a particular way
ADV. equitably, fairly, humanely, kindly, leniently, sympathetically, well | abominably, badly, harshly, roughly, shabbily, unfairly, unjustly They treat their animals quite badly.
seriously These allegations are being treated very seriously indeed.
differently | separately
VERB + TREAT tend to Parents still tend to treat boys differently from girls.
PREP. as the tendency to treat older people as helpless and dependent
like Don't treat me like a child!
with He treated the idea with suspicion.
PHRASES a tendency to treat sb/sth

[TahlilGaran] Collocations Dictionary ▲

treat
II. give sb medical treatment
ADV. easily | successfully | surgically
VERB + TREAT be difficult to | use sth to
PREP. for She was treated for cuts and bruises.
with We can treat this condition quite successfully with antibiotics.

[TahlilGaran] Collocations Dictionary ▲

treat
III. use a substance to protect sth
ADV. chemically Chemically treated hair can become dry and brittle.
PREP. for You need to treat this wood for woodworm.
with The timber has been treated with chemicals to preserve it.

[TahlilGaran] Collocations Dictionary ▲

treat

well
The majority of workers are well treated.
badly
Why did he treat me so badly?
fairly/unfairly
I just want to be treated fairly.
equally
All people should be treated equally, whatever their age.
differently
Should girls be treated differently from boys in school?
harshly
The guards treated the prisoners harshly.
kindly
The world had not treated him kindly.
treat somebody with respect/contempt/suspicion etc
When you treat the kids with respect, they act responsibly.
treat somebody like dirt informal (=very badly and with no respect)
He treated this wife like dirt.

[TahlilGaran] Collocations Dictionary ▲

behave to do and say things that are good, bad, normal, strange etc:
His teacher said he’d been behaving badly at school.
I’m not going to talk to her until she starts behaving reasonably.
Oh, be quiet! You’re behaving like a two-year-old.
act to behave in a particular way, especially in a way that seems unusual, surprising, or annoying to other people:
Tina’s been acting very strangely lately.
What makes grown people act like that?
treat to behave towards someone or deal with someone in a particular way:
She said that he’d treated her really badly throughout their two-year marriage.
I’m sick of my parents treating me like a child.
conform to behave in the way that most other people in your group or society behave:
Young people sometimes want to rebel and therefore they refuse to conform.
Society typically brings pressure on individuals and groups to conform to civilised norms.
conduct yourself formal to behave in a particular way, especially in a situation where people will notice and judge the way you behave:
Public figures have a duty to conduct themselves responsibly, even in their private lives.
By the end of the course, you should be able to conduct yourself with confidence in any meeting.

[TahlilGaran] English Thesaurus ▲

treat
to pay for someone else
My friend treated me to a dinner at a nice restaurant.

[TahlilGaran] English Idioms Dictionary ▲

treat
tri:t
See: trick or treat

[TahlilGaran] English Idioms Dictionary ▲