tracing

Pluraltracings

1. 1
   nouncountable

   A copy of an image produced by drawing over it through translucent paper.

   The architect kept a tracing of the original blueprint for reference.

   Several tracings of the fossil were sent to museums abroad.

   Similarcopy, reproduction

   Oppositeoriginal

   Note

   A noun of result built from trace and -ing, already tracyng in Middle English. It names the thing made, not the act of making it, so it counts: one tracing, several tracings. That separates it from the search for something lost, which names a process. Behind it stands the verb's copying meaning, drawing over the lines of an original through a sheet laid on top.

2. 2
   verb

   Present participle and gerund of trace.

   Investigators are tracing the funds through several banks.

   Tracing the family's history kept her busy for months.

   Note

   The -ing form does double duty. As a participle it builds progressives with be (are tracing the funds). As a gerund it acts as a noun (tracing the family's history kept her busy). The same spelling also serves the true nouns. The final e of trace drops before -ing. Two of the verb's older meanings, to imitate and to walk, are obsolete, so tracing in those senses belongs to old texts.

3. 3
   noununcountable

   The process of locating something lost by studying available evidence.

   The tracing of the missing funds took investigators several weeks.

   Genealogists specialize in the tracing of family lines through old records.

   Similartracking

4. 4
   nouncountable

   A record in the form of a graph produced by an instrument such as a seismograph.

   The cardiologist compared the new tracing with last year's results.

   Seismograph tracings revealed the location of the quake's epicenter.

   Similarreadout, printout, record

5. 5
   nouncountable

   A regular path or established course along which something moves or runs.

   The survey marked the river's old tracing across the plain.

   Shepherds still use the mountain tracings their grandfathers walked.

   Similarcourse, path, track, route, trail

   Note

   Here the word looks back to movement rather than drawing. Trace once meant simply to walk, go or travel, a use now obsolete, and a tracing in this sense is the line that such going leaves: a track, a regular course. Keep it apart from the copied drawing. A path of this kind is worn by travel, not drawn by hand.

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