Word.ws English Dictionary

trailing

/ˈtɹeɪ.lɪŋ/

trailing adjective: that converge in the direction of travel. Also the present participle and gerund of trail.

Adjective

trailing (not comparable)

  1. That converge in the direction of travel.
    • On the far hillside we are approaching can be descried a bridge on the first section (Ruabon–Llangollen) of the important G.W.R. branch to Dolgelley, which will shortly join our main line by means of a trailing junction.1955 January, R. S. McNaught, “From the Severn to the Mersey by Great Western”, in Railway Magazine, page 18
  2. That follows behind; especially, that is attached and pulled behind.
    • the trailing railcars
    • the trailing comments

Noun

trailing (plural trailings)

  1. Fabric or other material that trails.
    • […] their roots, projecting in fibrous sprawls from their trunks, were their feet, and she pictured them advancing with wide trailings, and rustlings as of green draperies […]1901, Mary E. Wilkins, The Portion of Labor
    • All too often, the spout of a soap dispenser rests over the counter and leaves trailings of soap that must be wiped up frequently if a clean appearance is to be maintained.2010, Regina S. Baraban, Joseph F. Durocher, Successful Restaurant Design

Also used as

trailing is also the present participle and gerund of trail.

trailing meaning in Urdu

trailing in Urdu

ٹریلنگ

Examples of trailing in a sentence

  • no trailing whitespace characters
  • This facility enables a 700-ton trailing load, for example, to be brought down a 1 in 66 gradient at any selected speed between 14 and 25 m.p.h. without use of the air brakes.1961 February, “New English Electric diesels for East Africa”, in Trains Illustrated, pages 90–91:
  • Having reversed at Eastbourne, I am in the trailing car, which leaps and fishtails around so much on our way to Bexhill that I have trouble writing coherent notes.2022 November 16, Paul Bigland, “From rural branches to high-speed arteries”, in RAIL, number 970, page 55:

Antonyms of trailing

Forms of trailing

pluraltrailings

Words formed from trailing

Phrases with trailing

Words that rhyme with trailing

9 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about trailing

What does trailing mean?
Trailing means that converge in the direction of travel.
What is trailing in Urdu?
Trailing in Urdu is ٹریلنگ. See Trailing meaning in Urdu.
How do you use trailing in a sentence?
no trailing whitespace characters
What part of speech is trailing?
Trailing can be an adjective or a noun.
How do you pronounce trailing?
Trailing is pronounced /ˈtɹeɪ.lɪŋ/.

Words near trailing in the dictionary

  1. trailhand
  2. trailhands
  3. trailhead
  4. trailheads
  5. trailin'
  6. trailing
  7. trailing arbutus
  8. trailing arbutuses
  9. trailing away
  10. trailing axle
  11. trailing axles

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: trailing (page history and authors); trailing (Urdu, 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.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-trailing.ogg.

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