• Trace

    Pronunciation

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

    Origin 1

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

    Full definition of trace

    Noun

    trace

    (plural traces)
    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

    Synonyms

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

    Origin 2

    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.
    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

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