TRAILING • DICCIONARIO INGLES.COM • 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.

See images of 'Trailing'

Etymology of 'Trailing'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Trailing" Quotes from Famous Books

... the mist was a six-horse team hitched to the most foreign-looking rig one could well imagine. It had something of the look of a preposterous hay-cart, with the ends of blue-painted poles sticking out in front and trailing behind. Following this was a great, white-swathed wheeled box drawn by four horses. It was certainly a curious affair, whatever it was, but neither Calico nor Old Jeff gave it much heed, nor did they waste a glance on the distant ...

— Horses Nine - Stories of Harness and Saddle • Sewell Ford

... flag aloft there?' said Wych Hazel. 'Are they marching to victory under its folds? I could not carry mine. It would be trailing, ...

— The Gold of Chickaree • Susan Warner

... slighter still in a long trailing race coat, passed through the paddock gate to the stand enclosure, Mike Gaynor spoke to ...

— Thoroughbreds • W. A. Fraser

... rock chimney in the low living room. I had never heard that canister mentioned by Mother Spurlock and I don't know how I knew that out of it came the emergency funds for many a crisis in the Settlement. Then last I picked a blush rose from the monthly bloomer trailing up and over the window and laid it on the empty, worn old Bible on the wide arm of the rocker beside a pair of horn-rimmed spectacles. Then I hesitated. I had been so sure of finding Mother Spurlock at home and ...

— The Heart's Kingdom • Maria Thompson Daviess

... fast as his copper-toed feet could carry him. It was quite a long lane, and a very pleasant one in summer. There was a row of hazel-nut bushes, always green and sweet, on one side, and a stone-wall on the other, with the broad leaves and tiny blossoms of a grape-vine trailing over it. The lane opened into a wide field which had an apple-orchard at one end of it, and sloped down over quite a little hill into a piece of marshy ground, where ferns and white violets, anemones, and sweet-flag grew in abundance. In the ...

— Gypsy Breynton • Elizabeth Stuart Phelps

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