TRAILING

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does trailing mean? 

• TRAILING (noun)
  The noun TRAILING has 1 sense:

1. the pursuit (of a person or animal) by following tracks or marks they left behind

  Familiarity information: TRAILING used as a noun is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• TRAILING (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

The pursuit (of a person or animal) by following tracks or marks they left behind

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Synonyms:

tracking; trailing

Hypernyms ("trailing" is a kind of...):

chase; following; pursual; pursuit (the act of pursuing in an effort to overtake or capture)

Domain category:

animal; animate being; beast; brute; creature; fauna (a living organism characterized by voluntary movement)

Derivation:

trail (go after with the intent to catch)

 Context examples 

This small decrease is consistent with a gravitationally-bound moon trailing the planet, much like a dog following after its owner.

(Astronomers Find First Evidence of Possible Moon Outside Our Solar System, NASA)

Then she fluttered away, running, trailing the broken wing, with him in pursuit.

(Love of Life and Other Stories, by Jack London)

But One Ear broke into a run across the snow, his traces trailing behind him.

(White Fang, by Jack London)

Calpain2 (M-calpain) is believed to be membrane bound and functions at the trailing edge of the migrating cell to cleave the integrins in response to growth factor receptor signals.

(Calpain-2 Cell Motility Pathway, NCI Thesaurus/BIOCARTA)

At the same instant an empty dog-cart, the horse cantering, the reins trailing, appeared round the curve of the road and rattled swiftly towards us.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

At length I was clear of my dangerous neighbour, and just as I gave the last impulsion, my hands came across a light cord that was trailing overboard across the stern bulwarks.

(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

A moment later he emerged, a heavy-set young fellow of eighteen or nineteen, with a glowering, villainous countenance, trailing at his heels.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

Rasping up on either side, with oars trailing to save them from snapping, they poured in a living torrent with horrid yell and shrill whoop upon the defenceless merchantman.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

The head was like that of a fowl, the body that of a bloated lizard, the trailing tail was furnished with upward-turned spikes, and the curved back was edged with a high serrated fringe, which looked like a dozen cocks' wattles placed behind each other.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

In an instant we swept the boat’s head round again and pulled with all our strength for the place where the haze still trailing over the water marked the scene of this catastrophe.

(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)