Forms: 4 trais(e, 4–7 trase, 4– trace. [ME. trace-n, a. OF. tracier, 12th c. (trasser, traser, traicier, etc.), F. trace-r Sp. = trazar, It. tracciare to follow by foot, to trace, indicating a pop.L. or Com. Romanic *tractiāre, f. L. tractus a drawing, dragging, trailing, crawling; a train, track, course. The primary meaning of the verb was app. ‘to proceed in a line, course, or track.’ The early sense-development in OF. and ME. is not very clear, and some of the senses attach themselves immediately to TRACE sb.1 in its sense of ‘mark left by anything moving, footprint,’ itself a derivative of the vb. in its earlier senses.]
I. † 1. intr. To take one’s course, make one’s way; to proceed, pass, go, travel, tread. Also fig.
c. 1400. Rom. Rose, 6745. Yit may he go his breed begging’ Fro dore to dore he may go trace, Til he the remenaunt may purchace.
a. 1400[?]. Morte Arth., 1629. Traise to-warde Troys þe tresone to wyrke.
1503. Hawes, Examp. Virt., X. viii. No man by yonde this marke may trace.
1513. Douglas, Æneis, VIII. v. 5. The prestis … Gan trasing furth.
a. 1518. Skelton, Magnyf., 692. As good to be occupyed as vp and downe to trace And do nothynge.
1598. Mucedorus, IV. iii. 52. The wood lanes … strawed With violets, cowslips, and swete marigolds For thee to trampel and to trace vpon.
1603. H. Crosse, Vertues Commw. (1878), 23. Induce them … to trace in the wholsome path that leadeth to the house of honour.
a. 1688. Villiers (Dk. Buckhm.), Restoration, Wks. (1775), 104. Fall off again,… and every man trace to his house again.
1793. Minstrel, II. 126. The forest, which she did not chuse to enter, but traced along its edge.
† 2. intr. To pace or step in dancing; to tread a measure; to dance. Also trans. (rare). Obs.
c. 1425. Lydg., Dance of Macabre, in Bochas, etc. (1554), 220 b. Death I may not flee, On this daunce with other for to trace.
1445. in Anglia, XXVIII. 273. Orpheus harpe which trees made trace.
1509. Barclay, Shyp of Folys (1874), II. 290. To hunt to chace: to daunce: to trace: what one is he That beryth face.
1602. Heywood, Woman Killed, Wks. 1874, II. 96. Come, Nick, take you Ioane Miniuer to trace withall.
1697. Dampier, Voy. (1729), I. 541. They traced too and fro promiscuously, often clapping their Hands and singing aloud.
1808. Scott, Marm., V. vii. The king loved well The merry dance, traced fast and light.
† 3. trans. To pass along or over, tread (a path, way, street, etc.). Also fig. Obs.
c. 1381. Chaucer, Parl. Foules, 54. Oure present wor[l]dis lyuys space Nys but a maner deth what weye we trace.
1580. Sidney, Ps. VIII. viii. The fish,… And what thing els of waters traceth The unworn paths.
1621. J. Reynolds, God’s Rev. agst. Murder, I. i. 5. Tracing the street in a neate perfumed boote with iangling spurres.
1650. Fuller, Pisgah, III. xii. 343. The passage … commonly called the dolorous way,… traced with the blessed feet of our Saviour.
1794. W. Blake, Songs Exper., Lit. Girl Found, 8. Arm in arm seven days They traced the desert ways.
fig. 1508. Fisher, 7 Penit. Ps., Prol., Wks. (E.E.T.S.), I. 2. That al tho persones that ententyfely rede or here them may be styred the better to trace the way of eternall salvacion.
† 4. trans. To travel or range over; to go or pass about, around, or through; to tread, traverse.
1430–40. Lydg., Bochas, VI. iv. (Bodl. MS. 263), lf. 314/2. Fond no loggyng, tracing the contres Saue in kauernys, & in holwe trees.
1577. Grange, Golden Aphrod., G j b. My harte it dothe bothe skippe and ioye to see hir trace the grounde.
1594. Marlowe & Nashe, Dido, I. i. But hapless I … Do trace these Lybian deserts, all despis’d.
1598. Hakluyt, Voy., I. 235. We sayled … with diuers other courses, trauersing and tracing the seas, by reason of sundry and manifolde contrary windes.
1632. Lithgow, Trav., IX. 412. I traced the fertile soyles of Carindia.
1807. Crabbe, Par. Reg., I. 306. He soon arrived, he traced the village green.
II. 5. To follow the footprints or traces of; esp. to track by the footprints; also with the traces as object; hence, to pursue, to dog.
c. 1440. Pallad. on Husb., Tab. 39. Been forto trace vnto their dwellyng.
1530. Palsgr., 760/2. It is forbydden to trace hares in snowe tyme.
1559. Mirr. Mag., Owen Glendour, xxxi. So traste they me among the mountaynes wide.
1605. Shaks., Macb., IV. i. 153. His Wife, his Babes, and all vnfortunate Soules That trace him in his Line.
1632. Lithgow, Trav., I. 17. Still left vntold, something there must be seene For them, who trace our feete, with Argus eyne.
1677. W. Hubbard, Narrative (1865), II. 124. By the help of the Snow that fell about that Time, [they] were traced till they were overtaken.
1841. Elphinstone, Hist. India, I. 123. Bound to find out the possessor of any stolen property within the township, or to trace him till he has passed the boundary.
1886. C. E. Pascoe, London of To-day, xxi. (ed. 3), 207. We might have traced Thackeray through his wanderings from street to street.
Mod. Note the number of the postal order, so that it may be traced if lost.
b. fig. To follow, pursue (instructions, example, etc.).
1649. Blithe, Eng. Improv. Impr. (1653), 100. Observe my Method, and strictly trace my Instructions.
1745. Transl. & Paraphr. Sc. Ch., LII. i. You who the Name of Jesus bear, His holy Footsteps trace.
6. fig. To follow the course, development, or history of. Also with the course, etc., as object.
1654. Bramhall, Just Vind., v. (1661), 90. If we trace on this argument a little further, to search out how the Bishop of Rome comes to be Saint Peters heire.
1729. Butler, Serm., Wks. 1874, II. 168. The common virtues, and the common vices of mankind, may be traced up to benevolence, or the want of it.
1766. Blackstone, Comm., II. xiv. 236. The tracing the inheritance back through the male line of ancestors.
1849. Macaulay, Hist. Eng., iv. I. 503. No libel on the government had ever been traced to a Quaker.
1887. Westm. Rev., June, 309. We have traced the history of Lower Canada down to the year 1839.
b. intr. for pass. To trace its origin or history; to go back in time, to date back.
1886. Field, 4 Sept., 346/1. The Belvoir Senator and the Brocklesby Harbinger traced directly to the Fitzwilliam.
1889. Jacobs & Lang, Æsop’s Fables, 53. The earliest form … cannot trace back earlier than the third … century.
1907. Daily Chron., 9 Sept., 3/2. The scare of invasion traces to the Armada of 1588.
7. trans. To make out and follow (with the eye or mind) the course or line of; to ascertain (the course or line of something).
1703. Maundrell, Journ. Jerus., Euphrates, etc. (1732), 2. Its Walls, which may be traced all round.
1779. Mirror, No. 9, ¶ 3. I … amused myself with tracing in the daughters, those features which, in the mothers and grandmothers, had charmed me so often.
1818. in Tuckey, Narr. Exped. R. Zaire, Introd. 8. The stream of this mysterious river [the Niger] being now traced with certainty from west to east as far as Tombuctoo.
1839. Murchison, Silur. Syst., I. xxxvii. 572. In situations where the boulders may be traced … to their parent rocks.
1856. Stanley, Sinai & Pal., i. 19. Often their course can be traced, not by visible water, but a track of moss here, a fringe of rushes there.
1907. Verney Mem., I. 2. The form of the ancient manor house may still be traced.
1910. Beth Bradford Gilchrist, Life of Mary Lyon, x. 407. The reader’s impressions of the woman are already formed, and he can trace the outline of her shadow on later decades.
b. To make out (worn or obscure writing); to discern, decipher.
1761. Gray, Odin, 22. Thrice he traced the runic rhyme.
1792. S. Rogers, Pleas. Mem., I. 137. It calls me … to trace The few fond lines that Time may soon efface.
1859. Jephson, Brittany, ii. 17. The characters may still be traced on a block of granite.
8. To discover, find out, or ascertain by investigation; to find out step by step; to search out.
1642. Fuller, Holy & Prof. St., V. i. 359. God … varieth his ways of dealing with wantons, that they may be at a losse in tracing him.
1697. Dryden, Virg. Georg., II. 699. Happy the Man, who, studying Nature’s Laws, Thro’ known Effects can trace the secret Cause.
1745. Transl. & Paraphr. Sc. Ch., XXII. iv. Tho’ him thou can’st not see, nor trace the working of his hands.
1869. Tozer, Highl. Turkey, II. 306. Tracing a connection … where in reality none exists.
b. To discover evidence of the existence or occurrence of; to find traces of.
1697. Dryden, Æneid, Ded. (1721), 350. He observes no Method that I can trace, whatever Scaliger the Father, or Heinsius, may have seen.
1782. Miss Burney, Cecilia, VIII. ix. The earliest circumstances she could trace were kindnesses received from her.
1856. Ruskin, Mod. Paint., III. IV. x. § 8. There is a great deal more in your heart, of evil and good, than you ever can trace.
a. 1862. Buckle, Civiliz. (1871), III. v. 367. Black … called it latent heat, because though we conceive it as an idea, we cannot trace it as a fact.
III. 9. trans. To mark, make marks upon; esp. to mark or ornament with lines, figures, or characters: cf. TRACERY.
c. 1400–50. Alexander, 4914. Þe testre trased full of trones with trimballand wingis Þe silloure full of Seraphens.
1523. Skelton, Garl. Laurel, 395. With diamauntes and rubis there tabers were trasid.
1582. D. Ingram, in Hakluyt, Voy. (1589), 558. The haire of their heads is shauen in sundry spots, and the rest of their head is traced [? tattooed].
1832. Tennyson, Pal. Art, xiii. The deep-set windows, stain’d and traced, Would seem slow-flaming crimson fires From shadow’d grots of arches interlaced.
1858. Whittier, Palm-Tree, 24. He holds a palm-leaf scroll in his hands, Traced with the Prophet’s wise commands.
1890. Daily News, 6 Jan., 5/2. Stockings and buckles were richly traced; the pocket was often a blaze of the richest embroidery.
10. To make a plan, diagram, or chart of (something existing or to be constructed); to mark out the course of (a road, etc.) on, or by means of, a plan or map; to mark or set out (the lines of a work or road) on the ground itself. Also fig. to devise (a plan of action), map out (a policy).
1374–5, 1399. [implied in tracing-house, -board: see TRACING vbl. sb.1 5].
1599. Porter, Angry Wom. Abingt. (Percy Soc.), 60. When I had doubled my poynt, traste my ground.
1624. Ld. Kensington, in Ellis, Orig. Lett., Ser. I. III. 173. What they traced out for the breaking of the match, you follow, pretending to conclude it.
c. 1645. Howell, Lett. (1650), I. 66. The castle [in Milan], by which the citadel of Antwerp was traced.
1669. Staynred, Fortification, 6. Tables … Whereby you may trace out any Fort by help of a Line of Equal Parts.
1696. Phillips (ed. 5), To Trace, to draw upon Paper the plane of a Building or Fortification.
1834. L. Ritchie, Wand. Seine, 120. Rollo’s … path, like that of other conquerors, was traced in blood and ashes.
1871. Freeman, Norm. Conq., IV. xviii. 212. The Ermine Street, not withstanding all the centuries which have passed since it was first traced out and paved, is still distinguished from a yet older track.
11. To draw; to draw an outline or figure of; also, to put down in writing, to pen. [So OF. tracier.]
1390. Gower, Conf., III. 46. Babilla with hire Sones sevene … With Cernes bothe square and rounde He traceth ofte upon the grounde.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 499/1. Tracyn, or draw strykys, protraho.
1665. Boyle, Occas. Refl., V. iii., heading. Killing a Crow…, and immediately tracing the ensuing Reflection with a Pen made of one of his Quills.
1712. J. James, trans. Le Blond’s Gardening, 96. Then trace upon the Ground the Triangle CDE.
1859. Gullick & Timbs, Paint., 8. The mode of commencing a picture by tracing the outline was followed by the early oil painters.
1888. Burgon, Lives 12 Gd. Men, I. i. 26. These last [annotations] were evidently traced by fingers rendered tremulous by age.
b. To copy (a drawing, plan, etc.) by following the lines of the original drawing on a transparent sheet placed upon it; to make a tracing of.
1762–71. H. Walpole, Vertue’s Anecd. Paint. (1786), V. 211. There were an hundred and four heads, hands and feet, traced off from the Cartoons.
1885. ‘Mrs. Alexander,’ At Bay, iii. They practiced duets together, and traced patterns.
IV. † 12. In phr. trace and traverse, trace and rase, in reference to combatants: sense uncertain: cf. RACE v.3, RASE v.1, and TRAVERSE v. Obs.
1470–85. Malory, Arthur, VI. viii. 194. Thus they ferd two houres or mo trasyng and rasyng eyther other where they myght hytte ony bare place. Ibid., VII. iv. 217. They rasshyd to gyders lyke borys tracynge, rasynge and foynynge to the mountenaunce of an houre. Ibid., X. xxx. 463. Thus they tracyd and trauercyd and hewe on helmes and hawberkes…. And euer sire Tristram tracyd and trauercyd and wente forward hym here and there.
1596. Spenser, F. Q., V. viii. 37. Thus long they trast, and trauerst to and fro.
Hence Traced ppl. a., † (a) travelled, journeyed: with adverbial qualification (obs.); (b) outlined, drawn, written; Tracing ppl. a., that traces or draws lines.
1632. Lithgow, Trav., vii. (1906), 293. My life and liberty being deare to me, my long traced feete became more nimble in twelve score paces, then they could follow in eighteene.
1712. J. James, trans. Le Blond’s Gardening, 92. The traced Line AB.
1875. Sir T. Seaton, Fret-Cutting, 146. Place the edge of the tool on the traced line.
1884. Mil. Engineering (ed. 3), I. II. 21. A sapper should be stationed … to await the arrival of the tracing party.
1907. Daily Chron., 24 Jan., 8/1. The spiral … must be skated boldly,… the knee of the tracing leg rather strongly bent.
