TRACK

I. noun Etymology: Middle English trak, from Middle French trac Date: 15th century 1. detectable evidence (as the wake of a ship, a line of footprints, or a wheel rut) that something has passed, a path made by or as if by repeated footfalls ; trail , a course laid out especially for racing, the parallel rails of a railroad, e. one of a series of parallel or concentric paths along which material (as music or information) is recorded (as on a phonograph record or magnetic tape), a group of grooves on a phonograph record containing recorded sound, material recorded especially on or as if on a ~ , a usually metal way (as a groove) serving as a guide (as for a movable lighting fixture), a footprint whether recent or fossil , 3. the course along which something moves or progresses, a way of life, conduct, or action, one of several curricula of study to which students are assigned according to their needs or levels of ability, the projection on the earth's surface of the path along which something (as a missile or an airplane) has flown, 4. a sequence of events ; a train of ideas ; succession , an awareness of a fact, progression, or condition , 5. the width of a wheeled vehicle from wheel to wheel and usually from the outside of the rims, the tread of an automobile tire, either of two endless belts on which a ~laying vehicle travels, ~-and-field sports, see: trace ~less adjective II. verb Date: 1565 transitive verb 1. to follow the ~s or traces of ; trail , to search for by following evidence until found , 2. to follow by vestiges ; trace , to observe or plot the moving path of (as a spacecraft or missile) often instrumentally, to travel over ; traverse , 4. to make ~s upon, to carry (as mud) on the feet and deposit, to keep ~ of (as a trend) ; follow , intransitive verb travel , 2. to follow the groove undulations of a recording, b. of a pair of wheels to maintain a constant distance apart on the straightaway, to fit a ~ or rails, to follow accurately the corresponding fore wheel on a straightaway, to leave ~s (as on a floor), ~er noun