- Trace
- Trace Trace, v. t. [imp. & p. p. {traced}; p. pr. & vb. n.
{tracing}.] [OF. tracier, F. tracer, from (assumed) LL.
tractiare, fr.L. tractus, p. p. of trahere to draw. Cf.
{Abstract}, {Attract}, {Contract}, {Portratt}, {Tract},
{Trail}, {Train}, {Treat}. ]
1. To mark out; to draw or delineate with marks; especially,
to copy, as a drawing or engraving, by following the lines
and marking them on a sheet superimposed, through which
they appear; as, to trace a figure or an outline; a traced
drawing.
[1913 Webster]
Some faintly traced features or outline of the mother and the child, slowly lading into the twilight of the woods. --Hawthorne. [1913 Webster]
2. To follow by some mark that has been left by a person or thing which has preceded; to follow by footsteps, tracks, or tokens. --Cowper. [1913 Webster]
You may trace the deluge quite round the globe. --T. Burnet. [1913 Webster]
I feel thy power . . . to trace the ways Of highest agents. --Milton. [1913 Webster]
3. Hence, to follow the trace or track of. [1913 Webster]
How all the way the prince on footpace traced. --Spenser. [1913 Webster]
4. To copy; to imitate. [1913 Webster]
That servile path thou nobly dost decline, Of tracing word, and line by line. --Denham. [1913 Webster]
5. To walk over; to pass through; to traverse. [1913 Webster]
We do tracethis alley up and down. --Shak. [1913 Webster]
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English. 2000.
