trail off
trail off verb: of a phenomenon, voice, etc.: to slowly diminish in frequency, intensity, or volume; also, to diminish more quickly over time.
Verb
trail off (third-person singular simple present trails off, present participle trailing off, simple past and past participle trailed off)
- Of a phenomenon, voice, etc.: to slowly diminish in frequency, intensity, or volume; also, to diminish more quickly over time.
- “So that’s why I’m, uh, refusing … uh, to do that …” He trailed off as he saw Mr. Winchester’s disapproving stare.
- Four-fifths of the way through the piece, a kind of spell breaks. Something changes in the atmosphere of the auditorium. The temperature in the huge room seems to rise by several degrees. More concerningly and noticeably, the music behind Wheeler begins to trail off. The conductor stops too.2019 April 10, qntm, “CASE HATE RED”, in There Is No Antimemetics Division, →ISBN, page 137
Synonyms of trail off
Forms of trail off
| third-person singular present | trails off |
|---|---|
| present participle | trailing off |
| past participle | trailed off |
| past | trailed off |
| alternative form | trail away |
Questions about trail off
- What does trail off mean?
- Trail off means of a phenomenon, voice, etc.: to slowly diminish in frequency, intensity, or volume; also, to diminish more quickly over time.
- What part of speech is trail off?
- Trail off is a verb.
- What is the past tense of trail off?
- The past tense of trail off is trailed off.
Words near trail off in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: trail off (page history and authors). 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: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-trail off.wav.
Cite this entry: “trail off.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/trail_off. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.