I. trawl 1 /trɔːl $ trɒːl/ BrE AmE verb [intransitive and transitive]
[ Date: 1500-1600 ; Language: Middle Dutch ; Origin: tragelen , from tragel 'net pulled along behind' , probably from Latin tragula ; ⇨ ↑ trail 1 ]
1 . to search through a lot of documents, lists etc in order to find out information
trawl through
I’ll have to trawl through all my lecture notes again.
trawl for
She spent the morning in the library, trawling for information for her project.
2 . to fish by pulling a special wide net behind a boat
II. trawl 2 BrE AmE noun [countable]
1 . an act of searching through a lot of documents, lists etc in order to find something
2 . ( also trawl net ) a wide net that is pulled along the bottom of the sea to catch fish