From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:
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.
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Some faintly traced features or outline of the
mother and the child, slowly lading into the
twilight of the woods. --Hawthorne.
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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.
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You may trace the deluge quite round the globe. --T.
Burnet.
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I feel thy power . . . to trace the ways
Of highest agents. --Milton.
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3. Hence, to follow the trace or track of.
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How all the way the prince on footpace traced.
--Spenser.
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4. To copy; to imitate.
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That servile path thou nobly dost decline,
Of tracing word, and line by line. --Denham.
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5. To walk over; to pass through; to traverse.
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We do tracethis alley up and down. --Shak.
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From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:
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.
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2. A regular path or track; a course.
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{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]
From WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006) [wn]:
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"
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