Word.ws English Dictionary

trailing off

trailing off is the present participle and gerund of trail off.

Meaning of trail off

Verb

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

  1. 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.
    Synonyms:
    peter, peter out

Questions about trailing off

What is trailing off the present participle and gerund of?
Trailing off is the present participle and gerund of trail off.

Words near trailing off in the dictionary

  1. trailing behind
  2. trailing commission
  3. trailing commissions
  4. trailing edge
  5. trailing edges
  6. trailing off
  7. trailing points
  8. trailing s
  9. trailing spoke
  10. trailing spokes
  11. trailing spring

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: trailing off (page history and authors); 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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Cite this entry: “trailing off.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/trailing_off. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.