trace

noun

1. Obsolete a way followed or path taken
2. a mark, footprint, etc. left by the passage of a person, animal, or thing
3. ☆ a beaten path or trail left by the repeated passage of persons, vehicles, etc.
4. any perceptible mark left by a past person, thing, or event; sign; evidence; vestige the traces of war
5. a barely perceptible amount; very small quantity a trace of anger
6. something drawn or traced, as a mark, sketch, etc.
7. the traced record of a recording instrument
8. 1. the visible line or spot that moves across the face of a cathode-ray tube
   2. the path followed by this line or spot
9. Chem. a very small amount, usually one quantitatively immeasurable
10. Math.
    1. the intersection of a line or of a projecting plane of the line with the coordinate plane
    2. the sum of the elements on the main diagonal of a matrix
11. Meteorol. precipitation amounting to less than 0.127 mm (0.005 in)
12. Psychol. engram

Etymology: ME < OFr < tracier < VL *tractiare < L tractus, a drawing along, track < pp. of trahere, to draw

transitive verb traced, trac′·ing

1. Now Rare to move along, follow, or traverse (a path, route, etc.)
2. to follow the trail or footprints of; track
3. 1. to follow the development, process, or history of, esp. by proceeding from the latest to the earliest evidence, etc.
   2. to determine (a source, date, etc.) by this procedure
4. to discover or ascertain by investigating traces or vestiges of (something prehistoric, etc.)
5. to draw, sketch, outline, etc.
6. to ornament with tracery: used chiefly in the past participle
7. to copy (a drawing, etc.) by following its lines on a superimposed transparent sheet
8. to form (letters, etc.) carefully or laboriously
9. to make or copy with a tracer
10. to record by means of a curved, broken, or wavy line, as in a seismograph

Etymology: ME tracen < OFr tracier: see tracethe

intransitive verb

1. to follow a path, route, development, etc.; make one's way
2. to go back or date back (to something past)

noun

1. either of two straps, chains, etc. connecting a draft animal's harness to the vehicle drawn
2. a rod, pivoted at each end, that transmits motion from one moving part of a machine to another

Etymology: ME traice < OFr traiz, pl. of trait: see trait