tracked

1. 1
   verb

   Simple past tense and past participle of track.

   Scientists tracked the whale's migration across the Pacific for two seasons.

   The detective tracked the suspect for weeks before making an arrest.

   Note

   One spelling does two jobs here, as with any regular verb. It serves as the simple past (they tracked the storm) and as the participle after have or be (the storm was tracked). The passive is open only to the transitive uses: following, monitoring, crossing ground. The filming use can stand without an object, so a camera can simply have tracked along the platform.

2. 2
   adjective

   Supported and propelled by continuous looped belts rather than ordinary wheels, giving better grip on soft or uneven ground.

   Like the looping belts on a snowmobile that spread the weight out and grip slippery surfaces.

   Tracked excavators handle the loose, steep slopes that wheeled machines can't manage.

   The expedition relied on a tracked vehicle to cross the glacier safely.

   Oppositewheeled

   Note

   This adjective comes from the noun, the looped belts a tank runs on, not from the verb. A tracked vehicle has tracks, while a tracked parcel is being followed, which is the verb's participle at work. It is a classifying word with no degrees, since nothing is more tracked than another. Its natural contrast in descriptions of machinery is wheeled.

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