1.
2.
[syn: tracing, trace]
3. the discovery and description of the course of development of something;
- Example: "the tracing of genealogies"
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:
Trace \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.
[1913 Webster]
Some faintly traced features or outline of the
mother and the child, slowly lading into the
twilight of the woods. --Hawthorne.
[1913 Webster]
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.
[1913 Webster]
You may trace the deluge quite round the globe. --T.
Burnet.
[1913 Webster]
I feel thy power . . . to trace the ways
Of highest agents. --Milton.
[1913 Webster]
3. Hence, to follow the trace or track of.
[1913 Webster]
How all the way the prince on footpace traced.
--Spenser.
[1913 Webster]
4. To copy; to imitate.
[1913 Webster]
That servile path thou nobly dost decline,
Of tracing word, and line by line. --Denham.
[1913 Webster]
5. To walk over; to pass through; to traverse.
[1913 Webster]
We do tracethis alley up and down. --Shak.
[1913 Webster]
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:
Tracing \Tra"cing\, n.
1. The act of one who traces; especially, the act of copying
by marking on thin paper, or other transparent substance,
the lines of a pattern placed beneath; also, the copy thus
producted.
[1913 Webster]
2. A regular path or track; a course.
[1913 Webster]
Tracing cloth, Tracing paper, specially prepared
transparent cloth or paper, which enables a drawing or
print to be clearly seen through it, and so allows the use
of a pen or pencil to produce a facsimile by following the
lines of the original placed beneath.
[1913 Webster]
WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006):
tracing
n 1: the act of drawing a plan or diagram or outline
2: a drawing created by superimposing a semitransparent sheet of
paper on the original image and copying on it the lines of
the original image [syn: tracing, trace]
3: the discovery and description of the course of development of
something; "the tracing of genealogies"
Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0:
84 Moby Thesaurus words for "tracing":
apograph, black and white, brouillon, carbon, carbon copy, cartoon,
charcoal, charcoal drawing, chiaroscuro, companion, copy, crayon,
dead ringer, delineation, design, diagram, doodle, double, draft,
drawing, duplicate, duplication, ebauche, effigy, esquisse,
exact likeness, fellow, fiche, graph, hectography, icon, idol,
image, likeness, line drawing, living image, living picture,
manifold, match, mate, microcopy, microfiche, microform,
mimeography, miniature, mirroring, model, pastel, pen-and-ink,
pencil drawing, photograph, picture, portrait, recording,
reduplication, reflection, reproduction, reprography, resemblance,
rough copy, rough draft, rough outline, rubbing, semblance, shadow,
silhouette, silver-print drawing, similitude, simulacrum, sinopia,
sketch, spit and image, spitting image, study, tenor, trace,
transcript, transcription, transfer, twin, very image,
very picture, vignette, xerography