Trace (?), n.
(Mech.) A connecting bar or rod,
pivoted at each end to the end of another piece, for transmitting motion, esp. from one plane to another; specif., such a piece in an organ-stop
action to transmit motion from the trundle to the lever actuating the stop slider.
Trace , v. i. To walk; to go; to travel. [Obs.]
Not wont on foot with
heavy arms to trace.
Spenser.
Trace , v. t. [imp. & p. p. traced (?);
p. pr. & vb. n.
tracing.]
[OF.
tracier, F. tracer, from (assumed) LL. tractiare, fr.L. tractus, p. p. of trahere to draw. Cf. Abstract, Attract, Contract, Portratt, Tract, Trail, Train, Treat. ]
1. To mark
out; to draw
or delineate with marks; especially, to copy, as a drawing or
engraving, by following the lines and marking them on a sheet superimposed, through which they appear; as, to
trace a figure or an
outline; a traced drawing.
Some faintly traced
features or outline of the mother
and the child, slowly lading into the twilight of the woods.
Hawthorne. 2. To follow by some mark that has been
left by a person or thing which has preceded; to follow by footsteps, tracks, or tokens. Cowper.
You may trace the deluge quite round the globe.
T. Burnet. I feel thy power . . . to trace the ways
Of highest
agents.
Milton. 3. Hence, to follow the trace or track of.
How all the way the prince on footpace traced.
Spenser. 4. To copy; to imitate.
That servile path thou nobly dost decline,
Of tracing word, and line by line.
Denham.
5. To walk over; to
pass through; to traverse.
We do tracethis alley up and
down.
Shak.
Trace , n. [F. trace. See Trace, v. t. ]
1.
A mark left by anything passing; a track; a path; a course; a footprint; a vestige; as, the trace of a carriage
or sled; the
trace of a deer; a sinuous trace.
Milton.
2. (Chem. & Min.) A very small
quantity of an element or
compound in a given substance, especially
when so small that the amount is
not quantitatively determined in an analysis; -- hence, in stating an analysis, often contracted to
tr.
3. A mark, impression, or visible appearance of anything left when the thing itself no longer exists; remains; token; vestige.
The shady empire shall retain no trace
Of war or blood,
but in the sylvan chase.
Pope. 4. (Descriptive Geom. & Persp.) The intersection of a plane of projection, or an original plane, with a coordinate plane.
5. (Fort.) The ground plan of a work or works.
Syn.-Vestige; mark; token. See Vestige.
Trace (?), n. [F. trais. pl. of trait. See Trait.]
One of two
straps, chains, or ropes of a harness, extending from the collar or breastplate to a whiffletree attached to a vehicle
or thing to
be drawn; a
tug.
Hear it pronounced