0 to put a new rubber surface on the outer part of a worn tyre:
1 to do something that has been done before, without adding any new ideas:
2 a tyre that has had a new rubber surface put on its outer surface:
Are those new tyres or retreads?
3 a book, film, show, etc. that uses ideas that have been used before:
This is no Jane Austen retread.
Technically, the show is a retread of the last one.
4 a worn tire that has had a new rubber surface joined to its outer part
It is a low-quality compound used in products like floor mats or truck retreads.
Critics complain that the scripts are retreads of old 70's sitcoms.
Hollywood tried to convince people that the latest versions of "Spider-Man" and "Shrek" were not just retreads.
The tyres, which were mostly synthetic retreads, and the tubes, were old stock for which no further use could be foreseen.
I do not need to retread the essentials of a settlement.