trickle
/ˈtɹɪkəl/
trickle noun: a very thin river.
Noun
trickle (plural trickles)
- A very thin river.
- The brook had shrunk to a mere trickle.
- A very thin flow; the sound of such a flow.
- The tap of the washbasin in my bedroom is leaking and the trickle drives me mad at night.
- The streams that run south and east from the mountains to the coast are short and rapid torrents after a storm, but at other times dwindle to feeble trickles of mud.1897, James Bryce, Impressions of South Africa
Verb
trickle (third-person singular simple present trickles, present participle trickling, simple past and past participle trickled)
- to pour a liquid in a very thin stream, or so that drops fall continuously.
- The doctor trickled some iodine on the wound.
- to flow in a very thin stream or drop continuously.
- Here the water just trickles along, but later it becomes a torrent.
- The film was so bad that people trickled out of the cinema before its end.
- To move or roll slowly.
- Some [marbles] were found in a child's grave at Nagada, Egypt […] together with a set of ninepins and three rectangular bricks which could have formed an arch through which to trickle the balls.1971, Gwen White, Antique Toys And Their Background, page 32
- They gather one by one, trickling into the shady courtyard, the familiar hum of Mass. Ave. wafting in from behind brick buildings and iron gates.2005 June 9, Michael M. Grynbaum, “An Entryway That Eats Together Stays Together”, in The Harvard Crimson, archived from the original on 25 Jan 2025
trickle meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Telugu and Malayalam
trickle in Hindi
- ट्रिकल करें, ट्रिकल
trickle in Tamil
- to trickle, stream
- சிந்து cintu
trickle in Telugu
- to trickle, as water
- ద్రవించు draviñcu
trickle in Malayalam
- to trickle, ooze, drain, leak
- കാലുക kāluka
More languagesFewer languages
- trickle in Kannada
- ತೊಟ್ಟಿಕ್ಕು, ಜಿನುಗು, ಹನಿಹನಿಯಾಗಿ ಬೀಳು, ಒಸರು
- trickle in Punjabi
- ਟਰਿੱਕਲ, ਟਰਿੱਕਲ ਕਰੋ, ਟਰਿਕਲ
- trickle in Gujarati
- ટપકવું ṭapakvũ
- trickle in Sanskrit
- गलति galati
- trickle in Nepali
- ट्रिकल
- trickle in Persian
- چک چک کردن ček ček kardan
- trickle in Vietnamese
- chảy nhỏ giọt
Examples of trickle in a sentence
- Her white night-dress was smeared with blood, and a thin stream trickled down the man's bare chest which was shown by his torn-open dress.1897, Bram Stoker, Dracula, Westminster [London]: Archibald Constable and Company, […], →OCLC:
- Their only shot of the first period was a long-range strike from top-scorer Ebanks-Blake which trickled tamely wide.2010 December 29, Sam Sheringham, “Liverpool 0 - 1 Wolverhampton”, in BBC Sport, archived from the original on 03 Feb 2025:
Forms of trickle
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | trickles |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | trickles |
| present participle | trickling |
| past participle | trickled |
| past | trickled |
Origin of trickle
From Middle English triklen, likely a rebracketing (e.g. teres strikled > teerys trikled (“tears trickled”)) of Middle English striklen (“to trickle”), equivalent to strike + -le. For other similar cases of incorrect division, see also apron, daffodil, newt, nickname, orange, umpire.
Words formed from trickle
Phrases with trickle
Words that rhyme with trickle
Questions about trickle
- What does trickle mean?
- Trickle means a very thin river.
- What is trickle in Hindi?
- Trickle in Hindi is ट्रिकल करें, ट्रिकल. See Trickle meaning in Hindi.
- How do you use trickle in a sentence?
- Her white night-dress was smeared with blood, and a thin stream trickled down the man's bare chest which was shown by his torn-open dress.
- What part of speech is trickle?
- Trickle can be a noun or a verb.
- How do you pronounce trickle?
- Trickle is pronounced /ˈtɹɪkəl/.
- What is the plural of trickle?
- The plural of trickle is trickles.
Words near trickle in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: trickle (page history and authors); trickle (Hindi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); சிந்து (Tamil) (page history and authors); ద్రవించు (Telugu) (page history and authors); കാലുക (Malayalam) (page history and authors); trickle (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); trickle (Punjabi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); trickle (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.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-trickle.wav.
Cite this entry: “trickle.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/trickle. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.