Verb

1. To replace the traction-providing surface of a vehicle that employs tires, tracks or treads.

Noun

1. A used tire whose surface, the tread, has been replaced to extend its life and use.
2. a person who re-entered military service in World War Two after serving in World War One.
   • 1950, Air Force Association, United States Army, Air Force Magazine:

     In Our War the Retreads usually slinked in over-aged, over-weight and overcautious in the face of a new generation.

   • 1971, Brian Garfield, The thousand-mile war: World War II in Alaska and the Aleutians:

     They were retreads and recruits under a small cadre of Regular Army officers and noncoms.

   • 1976, James Jones, Art Weithas, WW II: a chronicle of soldiering:

     We retreads upset everybody.

   • 2006, Keith E Bonn, When the Odds Were Even:

     As with the 100th Division, many of the replacements joining the 103d were "retreads" from the technical services or antiaircraft and aviation troops...