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trickle

[trik-uhl]

Example Sentences Origin

verb (used without object)

to flow or fall by drops, or in a small, gentle stream: Tears trickled down her cheeks.

to come, go, or pass bit by bit, slowly, or irregularly: The guests trickled out of the room.

verb (used with object)

to cause to trickle.

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Trickle is one of our favorite verbs.

So is bowdlerise. Does it mean:

to expurgate (a written work) by removing or modifying passages considered vulgar or objectionable.

to swindle, cheat, hoodwink, or hoax.

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noun

a trickling flow or stream.

a small, slow, or irregular quantity of anything coming, going, or proceeding: a trickle of visitors throughout the day.

Origin:
1325–75; Middle English triklen, trekelen (v.), apparently sandhi variant of strikle, perhaps equivalent to strike (in obsolete sense “flow”) + -le

Related forms

trick·ling·ly, adverb

Synonyms
4. dribble, seepage, drip.

Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2012.
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Link To trickle

Example Sentences

Good luck seems to trickle into this old river town.

They had all seen the graying of the faculty there, and they knew that a steady trickle of retirements was imminent.

In the dry season even some of the larger rivers slow to a trickle.

EXPAND

Good luck seems to trickle into this old river town.

They had all seen the graying of the faculty there, and they knew that a steady trickle of retirements was imminent.

In the dry season even some of the larger rivers slow to a trickle.

By dawn, the trickle that began to seep into the neighborhood during the night had become a scalding torrent.

Researchers have conjured up a trickle of electricity by zapping tiny nanowires with ultrasound.

Allow a hose to trickle slowly and move it periodically over several hours.

Since they were installed, the suicide rate has slowed to a trickle.

Sallie may get her diamond encrusted shoes, but the only trickle down involved here is for lobbyists.

The trickle of water that joins the two could be gone completely within a few years.

Hold the comb near a thin trickle of water from the faucet.

The effect of the tax cuts are pretty obvious and obviously didn't trickle down.

Gently ladle curds and whey into mold, occasionally pouring out liquid from bowl, until draining slows down to a trickle.

Vampire draw is the trickle of power that a charger pulls when left in the wall, even if there is no device plugged in.

Sales have slowed considerably, sometimes to a trickle.

Economic reforms will continue, but in a trickle rather than a counter-revolutionary flood.

They trickle in to the auditorium for one of the community's seemingly endless fund-raisers.

Mega-large, barely portable computers continue to trickle onto the market.

The trickle down effect will reach the youth as well.

As the waters began to drain away and the displaced to trickle home, politicians promised action.

Trees are bare, streams slow to a trickle or even freeze, and wildlife retreats to find food elsewhere or hibernates.

Yes, five years away, but the trickle could start sooner.

The authorities expect a trickle of eastern workers, not a flood.

Children dug furiously with sticks in the sand to encourage the trickle to run faster.

There's been a trickle of activity in the browser world recently.

The flood of money into equities has slowed to a trickle.

When problems occur in elections, it's often not until after the polls close that information about them begins to trickle out.

Full results are expected to trickle out in the next few days.

Instead, debt issuance by banks has slowed to a trickle and short.

Happily, evidence of m-health's usefulness is at last starting to trickle in.

People are already starting to trickle in and get their offices sorted out.

As the steady trickle of money seeping out of the country's banks turned to flood, the government imposed draconian controls.

Old stone structures arose from the bottom, and a tiny trickle of a stream ran through.

If they can grow that trickle into a stream, the technology might.

And now his work is starting to trickle into the open.

It lay in a cardboard box, a slimy trickle of blood on its back.

After all, that money is all going to trickle down and stimulate the economy, create jobs and save us from our financial crisis.

Don't remove the toothpick-leave it stuck in the cup to ensure a gentle trickle of water when you fill it.

She lives under a car cover in my orcas barn with a modern trickle charger keeping her battery warm.

It was not so good for media firms, which watched a torrent of revenue turn into a trickle.

None of them will produce more than perhaps a trickle of token power after a few cloudy.

The technology isn't expected to trickle down to your local dealer's lot anytime soon, however.

Time does seem to slow to a trickle during an empty afternoon and race when the brain is engrossed in challenging work.

Then it'd trickle down and the cycle would start again.

The new revelations, as they trickle out, will further tarnish the department's reputation.

But some researchers suspect those effects could trickle down into the lower layers, where weather happens.

The negro came in as a trickle and basically was forced to fit into the white mans culture and was never allowed to dominate.

It will take a while for the effects to trickle down to your level.

As winds died down, residents began to trickle back to.

The tiny trickle of foreign investment may well dry up completely if outside companies leave.

Whether that will ultimately trickle down and contribute to the long-term safety of younger athletes is the question.

As they tip into loss, the trickle of closures is likely to become a torrent.

Larger devices provide a trickle charge to car batteries and generators and come in portable and stationary options.

The problem was that the thermostat would draw power only from the tiny trickle of electricity from its wires.

The beetles simply have to tilt their bodies to make the water trickle into their mouths.

But a steady trickle of individual complaints finally persuaded the park to act.

Grab a small handful of the sand, and let it trickle out onto the ground.

Like it or not, the young increasingly pick the styles and brands that trickle up to the rest of the population.

Today, the park welcomes a trickle of visitors who have a chance to walk around many ponds containing thousands of alligators.

Someone forced open the front gate, and the trickle of invaders became a flood.

Web advertising can provide a trickle of revenue, so long as page view figures are high.

The flow has slowed to more of a trickle these days.

In the end, it was a trickle of smoke emanating from an overheated elevator motor that set off the statue's fire alarm system.

COLLAPSE

Collins

World English Dictionary

trickle (ˈtrɪk^əl)

—vb
1.	to run or cause to run in thin or slow streams: she trickled the sand through her fingers
2.	(intr) to move, go, or pass gradually: the crowd trickled away

—n
3.	a thin, irregular, or slow flow of something
4.	the act of trickling

[C14: perhaps of imitative origin]

'trickling

—*adj*

'tricklingly

—*adv*

'trickly

—*adj*

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition
2009 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009
Cite This Source

Etymonline

Word Origin & History

trickle

late 14c., possibly an aphetic variant of stricklen "to trickle," a frequentative form of striken "to flow, move" (see strike). The noun is 1580, from the verb. Trickle-down as an adjectival phrase in an economic sense first recorded 1944; the image had been in use at least since Teddy Roosevelt.

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Matching Quote

"Throughout the 1980's, we did hear too much about individual gain and the ethos of selfishness and greed. We did not hear enough about how to be a good member of a community, to define the common good and to repair the social contract. And we also found that while prosperity does not trickle down from the most powerful to the rest of us, all too often indifference and even intolerance do."

-Hillary Rodham Clinton

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