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trailing

   Also found in: Medical, Legal, Financial, Idioms, Encyclopedia, Wikipedia, Hutchinson 0.02 sec.
trail  (trl)
v. trailed, trail·ing, trails
v.tr.
1. To allow to drag or stream behind, as along the ground: The dog ran off, trailing its leash.
2. To drag (the body, for example) wearily or heavily.
3.
a. To follow the traces or scent of, as in hunting; track.
b. To follow the course taken by; pursue: trail a fugitive.
4. To follow behind: several cruisers trailed by an escorting destroyer.
5. To lag behind (an opponent): trailed the league leader by four games.
v.intr.
1. To drag or be dragged along, brushing the ground: The queen's long robe trailed behind.
2. To extend, grow, or droop loosely over a surface: vines trailing through the garden.
3. To drift in a thin stream: smoke trailing from a dying fire.
4. To become gradually fainter; dwindle: His voice trailed off in confusion.
5. To walk or proceed with dragging steps; trudge.
6. To be behind in competition; lag: trailing by two goals in the second period.
n.
1.
a. A marked or beaten path, as through woods or wilderness.
b. An overland route: the pioneers' trail across the prairies.
2.
a. A mark, trace, course, or path left by a moving body.
b. The scent of a person or animal: The dogs lost the trail of the fox.
3. Something that is drawn along or follows behind; a train: The mayor was followed by a trail of reporters.
4. A succession of things that come afterward or are left behind: left a trail of broken promises.
5. Something that hangs loose and long: Trails of ticker tape floated down from office windows.
6. The part of a gun carriage that rests or slides on the ground.
7. The act of trailing.

[Middle English trailen, probably from Old French trailler, to hunt without a foreknown course, from Vulgar Latin *trgulre, to make a deer double back and forth, perhaps alteration (influenced by Latin trgula, dragnet) of Latin trahere, to pull, draw.]

trailing [ˈtreɪlɪŋ]
adj
(Life Sciences & Allied Applications / Botany) (of a plant) having a long stem which spreads over the ground or hangs loosely trailing ivy
ThesaurusLegend:  Synonyms Related Words Antonyms
Noun1.trailingtrailing - the pursuit (of a person or animal) by following tracks or marks they left behind
animal, animate being, beast, creature, fauna, brute - a living organism characterized by voluntary movement
chase, pursual, pursuit, following - the act of pursuing in an effort to overtake or capture; "the culprit started to run and the cop took off in pursuit"
Translations
trailing [ˈtreɪlɪŋ] ADJ [plant] → trepador; [branches] → colgante
she wore a long trailing scarfllevaba un pañuelo largo que le colgaba
trailing edge (Aer) → borde m de salida, borde m posterior
trailing
adj
(Bot) → hängend; trailing plantHängepflanze f
(Aviat) trailing edgeHinterkante f, → Achterkante f


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? Mentioned in ? References in classic literature
 
No description can do justice to its beauty; but that beauty was lost to me then, and I saw nothing but the tri-coloured flag of France trailing over the stern of six vessels, whose black hulls and bristling broadsides proclaimed their warlike character.
The mountains looked surpassingly lovely, clad as they were in living, green; ribbed with lava ridges; flecked with white cottages; riven by deep chasms purple with shade; the great slopes dashed with sunshine and mottled with shadows flung from the drifting squadrons of the sky, and the superb picture fitly crowned by towering peaks whose fronts were swept by the trailing fringes of the clouds.
Why, you King-Post, you, I suppose you would have every man in the world go about with a small lightning-rod running up the corner of his hat, like a militia officer's skewered feather, and trailing behind like his sash.
 
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