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
(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
(Trace), v. i. To walk; to go; to travel. [Obs.]
Not wont on foot with heavy arms to trace.
Spenser. Traceable
(Trace"a*ble) a. Capable of being traced. — Trace"a*ble*ness, n. — Trace"a/bly, adv.
Tracer
(Tra"cer) n. One who, or that which, traces.
