TRAILING • FREE TRANSLATOR.ORG • Definition of Trailing

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/trˈeɪlɪŋ/ Listen

noun

Trailing n. A. & vb. n. from Trail.

Trailing arbutus. (Bot.) See under Arbutus.

Trailing spring, a spring fixed in the axle box of the trailing wheels of a locomotive engine, and so placed as to assist in deadening any shock which may occur.

Trailing wheel, a hind wheel of a locomotive when it is not a driving wheel; also, one of the hind wheels of a carriage.

verb

Trail v. t. (past & past part. trailed; pres. part. trailing)

1.

(a)

To hunt by the track; to track.

(b)

To follow behind.

(c)

To pursue.

2.

To draw or drag, as along the ground. "And hung his head, and trailed his legs along." "They shall not trail me through their streets Like a wild beast." "Long behind he trails his pompous robe."

3.

(Mil.) To carry, as a firearm, with the breech near the ground and the upper part inclined forward, the piece being held by the right hand near the middle.

4.

To tread down, as grass, by walking through it; to lay flat.

5.

To take advantage of the ignorance of; to impose upon. (Prov. Eng.) "I presently perceived she was (what is vernacularly termed) trailing Mrs. Dent; that is, playing on her ignorance."

Trail v. i.

1.

To be drawn out in length; to follow after. "When his brother saw the red blood trail."

2.

To grow to great length, especially when slender and creeping upon the ground, as a plant; to run or climb.

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Etymology of 'Trailing'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Trailing" Quotes from Famous Books

... cadets stood gaping at a huge hole in the middle of the room. The wooden floor was splintered around the edges of the opening and several pieces of the chemical feed-line equipment lay close to the edge, with trailing lines leading down into the hole. They heard a low moan and rushed up to the hole, flashing their lights ...

— On the Trail of the Space Pirates • Carey Rockwell

... with a party of the men, returned to his farm, to see if there were any appearance of other Indians being about there. On arriving at the spot where the desperate struggle had been, the wounded Indian was not to be seen; but trailing him by the blood which flowed profusely from his side, they found him concealed in the branches of a fallen tree.—He had taken the knife from his body, bound up the wound with the apron, and on their approaching him, accosted them ...

— Chronicles of Border Warfare • Alexander Scott Withers

... allows no report of them to last: mercy and justice disdain them. Let us not speak of them but look and pass by!' And I, looking, saw a banner which ran circling so swift that it seemed scornful of all rest: and after it there came trailing such a long train of people that I should never have thought death had undone so many. When I had made out one or two of them I saw and recognized the shade of him who, for cowardice, made the great refusal. Forthwith ...

— Dante: "The Central Man of All the World" • John T. Slattery

... the daily tax the city levied on them; past honeymoon cottages where young wives walked with young husbands in the dew, or great houses shut against the morning. Lovers came floating down the stream with masterless rudder and trailing oars. College race-boats shot by with modern Greek choruses in full blast and the frankest criticisms from their scientific crews. Fathers went rowing to and fro with argosies of pretty children, who gave them gay good morrows. Sometimes they met fanciful nutshells ...

— Moods • Louisa May Alcott

... all the trees in Florida are covered with a white moss which hangs from their branches to the ground. At night-time, when the moonlight falls, pearly grey, on the indeterminate crest of the forests, the trees look like an army of phantoms in long, trailing veils. In the daytime a crowd of large, beautiful butterflies, brilliant humming birds, and blue-winged jays and parroquets come and cling to the moss, which then resembles a white tapestry embroidered with ...

— The Worlds Greatest Books - Vol. II: Fiction • Arthur Mee, J. A. Hammerton, Eds.

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