trickle
noun
No English definition recorded for this entry.
L312625 on Wikidata ↗verb
- (of liquid) to flow in a thin stream
- to move or proceed slowly
Wiktionary
Pronunciation: /ˈtɹɪkəl/
noun
Etymology: From Middle English triklen, likely a rebracketing (e.g. teres strikled > teerys trikled (“tears trickled”)) of Middle English striklen (“to trickle”), equivalent to strike + -le. For other similar cases of incorrect division, see also apron, daffodil, newt, nickname, orange, umpire.
- A very thin river.
“The brook had shrunk to a mere trickle.”
- A very thin flow; the sound of such a flow.
“The tap of the washbasin in my bedroom is leaking and the trickle drives me mad at night.”
“The streams that run south and east from the mountains to the coast are short and rapid torrents after a storm, but at other times dwindle to feeble trickles of mud.”
verb
Etymology: From Middle English triklen, likely a rebracketing (e.g. teres strikled > teerys trikled (“tears trickled”)) of Middle English striklen (“to trickle”), equivalent to strike + -le. For other similar cases of incorrect division, see also apron, daffodil, newt, nickname, orange, umpire.
- to pour a liquid in a very thin stream, or so that drops fall continuously.
“The doctor trickled some iodine on the wound.”
- to flow in a very thin stream or drop continuously.
“Here the water just trickles along, but later it becomes a torrent.”
“The film was so bad that people trickled out of the cinema before its end.”
- To move or roll slowly.
“Some [marbles] were found in a child's grave at Nagada, Egypt […] together with a set of ninepins and three rectangular bricks which could have formed an arch through which to trickle the balls.”
“They gather one by one, trickling into the shady courtyard, the familiar hum of Mass. Ave. wafting in from behind brick buildings and iron gates.”