Trace

Pronunciation

• IPA: /tɹeɪs/, /tʃɹeɪs/
• Rhymes: -eɪs

From Middle English trace, traas, from Old French trace ("an outline, track, trace"), from the verb (see below).

Full definition of trace

Noun

1. An act of tracing.
   Your cell phone company can put a trace on your line.
2. A mark left as a sign of passage of a person or animal.
3. A very small amount.
• 1963, Margery Allingham, The China Governess Chapter 7, The highway to the East Coast which ran through the borough of Ebbfield had always been a main road and even now, despite the vast garages, the pylons and the gaily painted factory glasshouses which had sprung up beside it, there still remained an occasional trace of past cultures.
4. All of our chocolates may contain traces of nuts.
5. (electronics) An electric current-carrying conductive pathway on a printed circuit board.
6. An informal road or prominent path in an arid area.
7. One of two straps, chains, or ropes of a harness, extending from the collar or breastplate to a whippletree attached to a vehicle or thing to be drawn; a tug.
8. (fortification) The ground plan of a work or works.
9. The intersection of a plane of projection, or an original plane, with a coordinate plane.
10. (mathematics) The sum of the diagonal elements of a square matrix.

Derived terms

• downtrace, uptrace

Synonyms

• (mark left as a sign of passage of a person or animal) track, trail
• (small amount) see also .

From Middle English tracen, from Old French tracer, trasser ("to delineate, score, trace", also, "to follow, pursue"), probably a conflation of Medieval Latin *tractiāre ("to delineate, score, trace"), from Latin trahere ("to draw"); and Old French traquer ("to chase, hunt, pursue"), from Old French trac ("a track, trace"), from Middle Dutch treck, treke ("a drawing, draft, delineation, feature, expedition"). More at track.

Verb

1. (transitive) To follow the trail of.
• MiltonI feel thy power ... to trace the ways
  Of highest agents.
2. To follow the history of.
• T. BurnetYou may trace the deluge quite round the globe.
• 2011, July 19, Ella Davies, Sticks insects survive one million years without sex, They traced the ancient lineages of two species to reveal the insects' lengthy history of asexual reproduction.
3. (transitive) To draw or sketch lightly or with care.He carefully traced the outlines of the old building before him.
4. (transitive) To copy onto a sheet of paper superimposed over the original, by drawing over its lines.
5. (transitive, obsolete) To copy; to imitate.
• DenhamThat servile path thou nobly dost decline,
  Of tracing word, and line by line.
6. (intransitive, obsolete) To walk; to go; to travel.
• SpenserNot wont on foot with heavy arms to trace.
7. (transitive, obsolete) To walk over; to pass through; to traverse.
• ShakespeareWe do trace this alley up and down.

Related terms

• tracing

Anagrams

• caret
• cater
• crate
• react
• recta