Word.ws English Dictionary

trail

/tɹeɪl/

trail verb: to follow behind (someone or something); to tail (someone or something).

Verb

trail (third-person singular simple present trails, present participle trailing, simple past and past participle trailed)

  1. (transitive) To follow behind (someone or something); to tail (someone or something).
    • The hunters trailed their prey deep into the woods.
    • Nine months before she was taken in October 1994, Jodi was out jogging in Mason City before realizing she was being trailed. She noted the stalker was driving a black truck and reported the matter to the authorities.2026 August 10, Nicholas Muhoro, “Jodi Huisentruit, 27, Vanished From Her Apartment Parking Lot in 1995. Police Found Signs of a Struggle”, in Skip Boring, archived from the original on 11 Aug 2026
  2. (transitive) To drag (something) behind on the ground.
    • You'll get your coat all muddy if you trail it around like that.
    • Our little life is but a gust That bends the branches of thy tree, And trails its blossoms in the dust!1896, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, The Poetical Works of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, page 287
  3. (transitive) To leave (a trail of).
    • He walked into the house, soaking wet, and trailed water all over the place.
  4. (transitive) To show a trailer of (a film, TV show etc.); to release or publish a preview of (a report etc.) in advance of the full publication.
    • His new film was trailed on TV last night.
    • There were no surprises in this morning's much-trailed budget statement.
  5. (intransitive) To hang or drag loosely behind; to move with a slow sweeping motion.
    • The bride's long dress trailed behind her as she walked down the aisle.
    • Her curly hair trailed along her shoulders and down her back.
  6. (intransitive) To run or climb like certain plants.
    • The flowers glowed red and golden: snapdragons and sunflowers, and nasturtians trailing all over the turf walls and peeping in at the round windows.1954 July 29, J.R.R. Tolkien, “I: A Long-Expected Party”, in The Fellowship of the Ring (The Lord of the Rings; 1), →ISBN
  7. (intransitive) To drag oneself lazily or reluctantly along.
    • Our parents marched to church and we trailed behind.
  8. To be losing, to be behind in a competition.
    • Neil Lennon and his players have, in almost no time at all, roared back from trailing Rangers by 15 points in November to ending the year two points clear.2011 December 29, Keith Jackson, “SPL: Celtic 1 Rangers 0”, in Daily Record
  9. To carry (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.
  10. To create a trail in.
    • The sun shone on burnished bodies and arm-bands, and robes of beaver trailed the grass as majestic fellows trod back and forth in the passion of eloquence.1893 August, Mary Hartwell Catherwood, “The White Islander”, in The Century
    • […] was no mean judge of racing and, having a suspicion of the possible result, she secreted a lemon in the commodious recesses of a dress which, while the height of fashion in those times, nevertheless trailed the grass.1929, Frank Proctor, Fox Hunting in Canada and Some Men who Made it, page 162
  11. To travel by following or creating trails.
    • Trailed three miles down the North side and encamped early, making thirteen miles trailed to-day.1906, The Quarterly of the Oregon Historical Society, page 352
    • In accordance with the treaty of 1842 they crossed the Missouri River to a reservation in Kansas. Poor crops, however, and a feverish climate made them unhappy in their new home: they trailed back to Iowa.1915, Jacob Van der Zee, Early History of Lead Mining in the Iowa Country, page 8
  12. To transport (livestock) by herding it along a trail.
    • One operator on the Boise Forest in Idaho reports that where he formerly marketed 80-pound lambs after trailing them 10 days from the allotment, his lambs now often tip the scales at 100 pounds or better, mainly because only one day is required to transport an entire shipment to the railroad...1939, Pacific Stockman - Volumes 5-7
    • Genesis, the first book of the Holy Bible, relates the earliest known instance of cattle being trailed to better grass lands (unless Noah's trip with the ark is one).1956, John O. Bye, Back Trailing in the Heart of the Short-grass Country, page 6
  13. (dated) To take advantage of the ignorance of; to impose upon.
    • I presently perceived she was (what is vernacularly termed) trailing Mrs. Dent; that is, playing on her ignorance.1847 October 16, Currer Bell [pseudonym; Charlotte Brontë], Jane Eyre. […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), London: Smith, Elder, and Co., […], →OCLC

Noun

trail (plural trails)

  1. The track or indication marking the route followed by something that has passed, such as the footprints of animal on land or the contrail of an airplane in the sky.
    • The trail has gone cold.
    • condensation trail
    Synonyms:
    spoor, sign
  2. A route for travel over land, especially a narrow, unpaved pathway for use by hikers, horseback riders, etc.
  3. A route or circuit generally.
    • Politicians are on the campaign trail in preparation for this year's election.
  4. A trailer broadcast on television for a forthcoming film or programme.
  5. A walk in which all the edges are distinct.
  6. The horizontal distance from where the wheel touches the ground to where the steering axis intersects the ground.

Proper noun capitalized: Trail

Trail

  1. A city in British Columbia, Canada.
  2. A city in Polk County, Minnesota, United States.
  3. A census-designated place in Jackson County, Oregon, United States.

trail meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu

trail in Hindi

follow behind
पीछा करना pīchā karnā
route for travel over land
रास्ता rāstā

trail in Tamil

முன்னோடியான, வண்டி இழுவண்டி, முன்னோட்டம், சுவடு, பாதை, ஊர் தடம்

trail in Marathi

trail
पायवाट pāyvāṭ

trail in Urdu

گاڑی کا پچھلا ڈبا, ذیل, پیچھے گھسیٹنا
More languagesFewer languages
trail in Bengali
লেজ, মৃগাদির গমনপথ, খেই, লম্বা সারি
trail in Telugu
జాడ jāḍa
trail in Malayalam
ഊടുവഴി, നടപ്പുവഴി, വലിച്ചിഴയ്ക്കുക, സായാസം ചലിക്കുക
trail in Kannada
ಜಾಡು, ವಾಸನೆ, ಸುಳಿವು, ಕಾಲುದಾರಿ
trail in Punjabi
ਖੁਰਾ khurā
trail in Gujarati
પગેરું, ટ્રેઇલ
trail in Nepali
ट्रेल, ट्रेइल
trail in Tagalog
bagnos
trail in Arabic
جَرَّ jarra, أَثَر ʔaṯar, مَسْلَك maslak
trail in Persian
مالرو mâlrow, گذر gozar

Examples of trail in a sentence

  • data trail, paper trail
  • "I saw your brother—I saw your brother," he said, nodding his head, as Archer lagged past him, trailing his spade, and scowling at the old gentleman in spectacles.1922 October 26, Virginia Woolf, chapter 1, in Jacob’s Room, Richmond, London: […] Leonard & Virginia Woolf at the Hogarth Press, →OCLC...
  • That control became visible each spring when they trailed back out of the low country to summer range.1982, David Lavender, Colorado River Country, page 144:
  • The most impressive long-distance traders, however, were the backcountry drovers, who trailed herds of livestock up the wagon road to Philadelphia (Merrens 1964:135; Bridenbaugh 1971:138).1989, John Solomon Otto, The Southern Frontiers, 1607-1860, page 53:
  • In all areas where trails are present, stock must remain on the trails.2008, Ron Kay, Ron Kay's Guide to Zion National Park, page 78:

All 40 example sentences with trail

Synonyms of trail

All synonyms of trail

Forms of trail

Verb
third-person singular presenttrails
present participletrailing
past participletrailed
pasttrailed
Noun
pluraltrails

Past tense of trail: trailed

Plural of trail: trails

Origin of trail

From Middle English trailen, from Old French trailler (“to tow; pick up the scent of a quarry”), from Vulgar Latin *tragulāre (“to drag”), from Latin tragula (“dragnet, javelin thrown by a strap”), probably related to Latin trahere (“to pull, drag along”).

Words formed from trail

Phrases with trail

38 more phrasesFewer phrases

Words that rhyme with trail

48 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about trail

What does trail mean?
Trail means to follow behind (someone or something); to tail (someone or something).
What is trail in Hindi?
Trail in Hindi is पीछा करना (pīchā karnā), रास्ता (rāstā). See Trail meaning in Hindi.
How do you use trail in a sentence?
data trail, paper trail
What part of speech is trail?
Trail can be a verb, a noun or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce trail?
Trail is pronounced /tɹeɪl/.
What is the past tense of trail?
The past tense of trail is trailed.

Words near trail in the dictionary

  1. Traian
  2. Traian Vuia
  3. traif
  4. traife
  5. Traiguén
  6. trail
  7. trail angel
  8. trail angels
  9. trail away
  10. trail behind
  11. trail bike

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: trail (page history and authors); Trail (page history and authors); trail (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); पायवाट (Marathi) (page history and authors); trail (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); trail (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); trail (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); trail (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); ਖੁਰਾ (Punjabi) (page history and authors); trail (Gujarati, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); trail (Nepali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-us-trail.ogg, LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-trail.wav.

Cite this entry: “trail.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/trail. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.