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From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.44 [gcide]:
Trace \Trace\, verb (used with an object) [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.
Some faintly traced features or outline of the mother and the child, slowly lading into the twilight of the woods. --Hawthorne.
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.
You may trace the deluge quite round the globe. --T. Burnet.
I feel thy power . . . to trace the ways Of highest agents. --Milton.
3. Hence, to follow the trace or track of.
How all the way the prince on footpace traced. --Spenser.
4. To copy; to imitate.
That servile path thou nobly dost decline, Of tracing word, and line by line. --Denham.
5. To walk over; to pass through; to traverse.
We do tracethis alley up and down. --Shak.
From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:
traced
adjective: derived by copying something else; especially by following lines seen through a transparent sheet [syn: {copied}]
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Definitions retrieved from local copies of the freely distributed DICT client/server software and databases. Click here for database copyright information. - KM |