(~s, tracing, ~d)
Frequency: The word is one of the 3000 most common words in English.
1.
If you ~ the origin or development of something, you find out or describe how it started or developed.
The exhibition ~s the history of graphic design in America from the 19th century to the present...
The psychiatrist successfully ~d some of her problems to severe childhood traumas.
VERB: V n, V n to n
•
Trace back means the same as ~ .
Britain’s Parliament can ~ its history back to the English Parliament of the 13th century...
She has never ~d back her lineage, but believes her grandparents were from Aberdeenshire.
PHRASAL VERB: V n P to n, V P n (not pron)
2.
If you ~ someone or something, you find them after looking for them.
Police are anxious to ~ two men seen leaving the house just before 8am...
VERB: V n
3.
If you ~ something such as a pattern or a shape, for example with your finger or toe, you mark its outline on a surface.
I ~d the course of the river on the map.
VERB: V n
4.
If you ~ a picture, you copy it by covering it with a piece of transparent paper and drawing over the lines underneath.
She learned to draw by tracing pictures out of old storybooks.
VERB: V n
5.
A ~ of something is a very small amount of it.
Wash them in cold water to remove all ~s of sand...
N-COUNT: usu N of n
6.
A ~ is a sign which shows you that someone or something has been in a place.
There’s been no ~ of my aunt and uncle...
Finally, and mysteriously, Hoffa disappeared without ~.
N-COUNT: usu N of n, also without N
7.
If you say that someone or something sinks without ~ or sinks without a ~, you mean that they stop existing or stop being successful very suddenly and completely.
The Social Democratic Party has sunk without ~ at these elections...
PHRASE: V inflects