Forms: 3– trace; also 4–5 tras, 4–7 trase, (4 traze, Sc. trass, traiss, 4–5 trays, Sc. traise, 5 traas. trayse, (trasche), 6 Sc. trais). [a. F. trace (12th c. in Godef.) = Pr. trassa, It. traccia (Sp. traza draught, first sketch), vbl. sb. f. OF. tracier, F. tracer: see TRACE v.1]
† 1. The way or path that anything takes; course, road; esp. in to take one’s trace, to make one’s way, take one’s course, proceed. Obs.
a. 1300. [see b].
13[?]. K. Alis., 7759 (Bodl. MS.). Alisaunder & Candace To Chaumber token her trace.
13[?]. E. E. Allit. P., A. 1112. To-warde þe þrone þay trone a tras.
c. 1425. Cast. Persev., 1923, in Macro Plays, 131. Haue don, felaus! & take ȝoure trasche.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 498/2. Trace, of a wey over a felde, trames.
c. 1450. St. Cuthbert (Surtees), 3394. To farne agayne he takes his trace.
c. 1470. Henryson, Mor. Fab., IX. (Wolf & Fox), xvi. All the trace he [the Cadger] trippit on his tais.
1530. Palsgr., 282/2. Trace, a streyght way, trace.
1596. Spenser, F. Q., VI. i. 6. Now I begin To tread an endlesse trace, withouten guyde.
1678. Cudworth, Intell. Syst., I. v. § 25. 684. The striate particles finding no fit pores or traces for their passage through it.
1768. Sterne, Sent. Journ. (1778), I. 69. I wanted the traces through which my wishes might find their way to her.
† b. fig. A course of action or conduct; way of proceeding; ‘path,’ ‘way,’ ‘road’; esp. in phrases to follow, take, tread the trace. Obs.
a. 1300. Cursor M., 25528. Until us Þat al to mikel has ben vnbuxs Vnto þi suet trace [Fairf. for to folow þi trace].
c. 1375. Cato’s Mor., 374. ibid. p. 1674 (Fairf. MS.). Gode grante vs grace To folow catouns trace In his teyching.
c. 1375. Sc. Leg. Saints, xxvi. (Nycholas), 43. Þus he be-gane to god seke, & held furth ay in þat trace.
c. 1430. Hymns Virg., 35. Y took to þe world, & wente from þee, V folewide þe feend al in his traas.
c. 1586. C’tess Pembroke, Ps. CXIX. D. iii. From the lyers trace, From falshoods wreathed way, O save me, Lord.
1631. Weever, Anc. Fun. Mon., 67. The rest of the Nobilitie … trode also the same trace.
1652. J. Wright, trans. Camus’ Nat. Paradox, VIII. 163. To reduce him into the trace of his Duty and Reason.
a. 1716. South, Serm. (1823), III. 252. God, by a secret, unobserved trace of his providence, may cast men under a … seducing ministry.
† 2. A line, file, or train of persons. Obs.
c. 1385. Chaucer, L. G. W., Prol. 285. I saugh comyng of ladyes Nientene … And after hem coome of wymen swich a traas.
1598. Barret, Theor. Warres, IV. i. 102. The Sergeant Maiors … haue conducted these Regiments very disorderly, making a long trace, file, or lyne (as it were) of them.
† 3. A series of steps in dancing; a measure; a dance. Obs.
c. 1450. Mankind, ii. 521, in Macro Plays, 20. I xall make hym to dawnce a-noþer trace!
c. 1460. Sir R. Ros, Belle Dame, 190. Whan he thought tyme to daunce with her a trace.
1500–20. Dunbar, Poems, lxxxi. 26. Thane com the ladyis, danceing in ane trace.
1519. Interl. Four Elements (Percy Soc.), 48. Folow all! I wyll lede a trace.
1577. [see TRACING vbl. sb.1 2].
† 4. pl. The series or line of footprints left by an animal; hence in sing. a footprint. Obs.
13[?]. Guy Warw. (A.), 4732. Of hors traces by þer seye.
c. 1374. Chaucer, Boeth., V. Met. v. 133 (Camb. MS.). Other bestis gladen hemself to diggen hir traas on hir steppis in the Erthe with hir goyngz or with hir feet.
1484. Caxton, Fables of Æsop, IV. xii. We knowe wel by thy traces that all the beestes whiche haue entryd in to thy hows came not oute ageyne.
1552. Huloet, Trace or steppe, vestigium.
1575. Turberv., Venerie, 114. In Beasts of pray and rauine as Beare and Bore &c. they are called traces.
1616. Surfl. & Markh., Country Farme, 694. There is more regard to bee taken vnto her traces: for the print of the hares foot is sharpe, and fashioned like vnto the point of a knife.
1706. Phillips (ed. Kersey), Trace (among Hunters), the Footprint of wild Beasts.
fig. 1610. Crt. & Times Jas. I. (1849), I. 114. One who hath left so good traces and steps wherein to walk.
† b. pl. loosely. Footsteps. Obs.
1613. W. Browne, Brit. Past., I. iv. 294. Till at the last … Ye bend your traces up some shady hill.
5. The track made by the passage of any person or thing, whether beaten by feet or indicated in any other way: = TRACK sb. 1. On one’s trace(s, in pursuit of one; to keep trace of, to follow the movements of, keep sight of in going.
1375. Barbour, Bruce, VI. 553. In his traiss þe hund he set. Ibid., 583. Þe hund … ay followit þe kyngis trass.
c. 1420. Anturs of Arth., v. The king blowe rechas, And folowed fast on þe tras.
c. 1489. Caxton, Sonnes of Aymon, ix. 238. Men myghte well folow hym bi the trase, by cause of the blode that cam out of his body.
1556. W. Tymmes, in Foxe, A. & M. (1583), 2142/1. A sheepe [= ship] that passeth ouer the waues…, when it is gone by, the trace thereof cannot be found.
1810. Scott, Lady of L., I. vii. Two dogs of black Saint Hubert’s breed … Fast on his [the stag’s] flying traces came.
1887. Bowen, Æneid, II. 528. On his traces aflame with murderous stroke, Pyrrhus—behind—the pursuer!
b. spec. A beaten path through a wild or unenclosed region, made by the passage of men or beasts; a track, a trail. U.S.
1807. Wilkinson, in Pike, Sources Mississ., II. (1810), App. 24. We … took the large Spanish trace for the Arkansaw river.
1808. Pike, Sources Mississ., II. (1810), 134. We marched, leaving the Osage trace, which we had hitherto followed.
1817. J. Bradbury, Trav. Amer., 65. We … soon fell in with the trace from the Maha village to the monument.
1837. R. M. Bird, Nick of the Woods, xxiv. II. 247. Leaving the broad buffalo-trace by which he descended the banks.
1904. W. Churchill, Crossing, I. vii. 77. They were going off up the trace towards his mother’s.
c. In the West Indies, A grass drive, a lane.
1871. Kingsley, At Last, vii. The heat of a cane-field trace is utterly stifling. Ibid., xiii. A grass drive, as we should call it in England—a ‘trace,’ as it is called in the West Indies—some sixty feet in width.
6. pl. Vestiges or marks remaining and indicating the former presence, existence, or action of something; sing. a vestige, an indication.
c. 1400. Maundev. (1839), vi. 71. Sche mylked hem on the rede stones of marble; so þat the traces may ȝit be sene in the stones alle whyte.
1814. Mrs. J. West, Alicia de Lacy, III. 2. No trace of inhabitation but the fortified castle or the sacred monastery.
1816. Scott, Antiq., iv. My niece … saw the traces of the ditch at once.
1865. Lubbock, Preh. Times, ii. 29. At the end of the coffin were found traces of leather, doubtless the remains of boots.
Mod. Of the fortifications no trace now remains.
b. A mark or impression left on the face, the mind, etc.
1809. Malkin, Gil Blas, III. v. ¶ 12. My brain full of joyous traces.
1844. A. B. Welby, Poems (1867), 45. Where beauty left so soft a trace.
1848. Lytton, Harold, I. i. It was on that forehead that time had set its trace.
c. An indication of the presence of a minute amount of some constituent in a compound; a quantity so minute as to be inferred but not actually measured; esp. in Chem.; transf. a very little.
1837. Faraday, Chem. Manip., iv. (1842), 99. It burns away completely in a blast-furnace, leaving scarcely a trace of slag.
1838. T. Thomson, Chem. Org. Bodies, 578. Traces of oxalic acid can be detected.
1859. R. Hunt, Guide Mus. Pract. Geol. (ed. 2), 209. Its composition is: Gold 48·67, Silver 51·33, Copper, a trace.
1875. Darwin, Insectiv. Pl., xvi. 375. The distance was a trace less.
1876. Gladstone, in Contemp. Rev., June, 22. Like a chemist who, in a testing analysis,… if he finds something behind so minute as to refuse any quantitative estimate, calls it by the name of ‘trace.’
7. fig. A non-material indication or evidence of the presence or existence of something, or of a former event or condition; a sign, mark.
1656. Cowley, Pind. Odes, I. iii. With Oblivions silent stroke deface Or foregone Ills the very trace.
1696. Whiston, Th. Earth, II. (1722), 186. There are Traces … of a Tradition that a Comet did appear at the very Beginning of the Deluge.
1710. Pope, Windsor For., 372. The shady empire shall retain no trace Of war or blood, but in the sylvan chase.
1849. Macaulay, Hist. Eng., x. II. 661. In countries where all trace of the limited monarchy of the middle ages had long been effaced.
1850. McCosh, Div. Govt., I. ii. (1874), 36. We discover everywhere in this world traces of design and wisdom.
1909. H. M. Gwatkin, Early Ch. Hist., xi. 188. Thee is no trace of any veneration of pictures or images before the fourth century.
8. A line or figure drawn; a tracing, drawing, or sketch of an object or of a piece of work; the traced record of a self-recording instrument; in Fortif. the ground-plan of a work. (In quot. 1861 app. a tracing-instrument.)
1744. Akenside, Pleas. Imagination, III. 362. Not the sculptur’d gold More faithful keeps the graver’s lively trace.
1861. Smiles, Engineers, II. 76. Picked out from the heap were also found his drill,… his trace, his T square,… and his engraving tools.
1879. Cassell’s Techn. Educ., I. 21. The trace of a work is the plan of its guiding or magistral line.
1895. Col. Maurice, in United Service Mag., July, 430. He made out both a trace of the work including the interior retrenchment and an exact profile of the ditched parapet.
1898. Allbutt’s Syst. Med., V. 847. The respiration is an important factor in the blood-pressure, and in the run of the circulation is apparent to everyone who has watched the traces of the kymograph.
1899. Baldock, Cromwell, 293. The rampart … was strong and high, and of regular trace.
9. Geom. a. The track described by a moving point, line, or surface. b. The intersection of a line or surface with a surface; spec. the intersection of a plane with one of the co-ordinate planes, or with one of the planes of projection. c. The projection of a line upon a surface (Funk’s Stand. Dict., 1895).
1834–47. J. S. Macaulay, Field Fortif. (1851), 287. Let AB, Fig. 71, be the horizontal trace of a vertical plane.
1840. Lardner, Geom., i. 11. The notion of a mathematical surface may be formed by imagining a mathematical line to move in any manner in space, leaving behind it, as it moves, a trace or track. This trace or track will be a mathematical surface.
1857. Thomson & Tait, Nat. Phil., I. I. § 111. When a body rolls and spins on another body, the trace of either on the other is the curved or straight line along which it is successively touched.
† 10. Her. = TRACT sb.3 6 (a), TRESSURE. Obs.
1486. Bk. St. Albans, Her., e vij. He berith golde a dowble trace florishyt contrari and a Lyon rampyng of gowles. Ibid. He berith golde a trace triplatit of Siluer.
