a surviving mark, sign, or evidence of the former existence, influence, or action of some agent or event; vestige: traces of an advanced civilization among the ruins.
2.
a barely discernible indication or evidence of some quantity, quality, characteristic, expression, etc.: a trace of anger in his tone.
3.
an extremely small amount of some chemical component: a trace of copper in its composition.
4.
traces, the series of footprints left by an animal.
5.
the track left by the passage of a person, animal, or object: the trace of her skates on the ice.
a lightly drawn line, as the record drawn by a self-registering instrument.
11.
Mathematics.
a.
the intersection of two planes, or of a plane and a surface.
b.
the sum of the elements along the principal diagonal of a square matrix.
c.
the geometric locus of an equation.
12.
the visible line or lines produced on the screen of a cathode-ray tube by the deflection of the electron beam.
13.
Linguistics. (in generative grammar) a construct that is phonologically empty but serves to mark the place in the surface structure of a sentence from which a noun phrase has been moved by a transformational operation.
to follow, make out, or determine the course or line of, especially by going backward from the latest evidence, nearest existence, etc.: to trace one's ancestry to the Pilgrims.
17.
to follow (footprints, evidence, the history or course of something, etc.).
18.
to follow the course, development, or history of: to trace a political movement.
19.
to ascertain by investigation; find out; discover: The police were unable to trace his whereabouts.
to go back in history, ancestry, or origin; date back in time: Her family traces back to Paul revere.
28.
to follow a course, trail, etc.; make one's way.
29.
(of a self-registering instrument) to print a record in a curved, broken, or wavy-lined manner.
Origin: 1250–1300; late Middle English tracen,Middle English: to make one's way, proceed < Middle French tracier < Vulgar Latin *tractiāre, derivative of Latin tractus, past participle of trahere to draw, drag; (noun) Middle English: orig., way, course, line of footprints < Old French, derivative of tracier
Related forms
un·traced, adjective
Synonyms 1. Trace, vestige agree in denoting marks or signs of something, usually of the past. Trace, the broader term, denotes any mark or slight indication of something past or present: a trace of ammonia in water. Vestige is more limited and refers to some slight, though actual, remains of something that no longer exists: vestiges of one's former wealth. 2. hint, suggestion, taste, touch. 5. spoor, trail, record. 15. trail.
either of the two straps, ropes, or chains by which a carriage, wagon, or the like is drawn by a harnessed horse or other draft animal.
2.
a piece in a machine, as a bar, transferring the movement of one part to another part, being hinged to each.
Idiom
3.
kick over the traces, to throw off restraint; become independent or defiant: He kicked over the traces and ran off to join the navy.
Origin: 1300–50; Middle English trais < Middle French, plural of trait strap for harness, action of drawing < Latin tractus a drawing, dragging; see tract1
"straps or chains by which an animal pulls a vehicle," c.1300, from earlier collective plural trays, from O.Fr. traiz, pl. of trait "strap for harnessing, act of drawing," from L. tractus "a drawing, track," from stem of trahere "to pull, draw" (see tract (1)).