Pope: Rape of the Lock

127. 3. Anything drawn behind in long undulations; a train. "Chaf'd by the speed, it fir'd: and as it flew, A trail of following flames ascending drew." Dryden: Virgil's Æneid , v. 692. *4. A moving along the ground; a crawl. "The serpentes twine, with hasted traile they glide To Pallas temple and her towres of heighte." Surrey: Virgil's Eneid , ii. 5. Mark or track left by anything pursued; track or scent followed by a hunter. "This brain of mine, Hunts not the trail of policy so sure As it hath used to do." Shakesp.: Hamlet , ii. 2. 6. An Indian footpath or road; a path made by Indians traveling. 7. The act of playing upon or taking advantage of one's ignorance. (See example under TRAIL, v., II. Technically : 1. Arch .: A running enrichment of leaves, flowers, tendrils, ., in the hollow moldings of Gothic architecture. A. Transitive: I. Ordinary Language: 1. To draw or drag behind and along the ground. "The wounded hand Trail'd the long lance that mark'd with blood the sand." Pope : Homer's Iliad , xiii. 748. *2. To drag along behind one. "Because they shall not trail me through their streets Like a wild beast, I am content to go." Milton : Samson Agonistes , 1,402. 2. Ordn.: The end of a stock of a gun-carriage, which rests upon the ground when a gun is unlim bered, or in position for firing. The stock proper is inserted into a forked iron plate, the lunette, having a loop wrought on its outer extremity, which is pa ed over the pintle-hook of the limber when the gun is limbered up. IMG:content-1305.png:[blocks in formation] lay flat. "Our little life is but a gust, That bends the branches of thy tree, And trails its blo oms in the dust." Long fellow: Suspiria. 4. To hunt or follow by the track or trail; to track. "A careful pointer will show signs of game, and commence trailing him, for the scent is strong."-Scribner's Magazine , Aug., 1877, p. 421. *5. To interweave; to adorn. "Trayled with ribbands diversly distraught." Spenser: F. Q., V. v. 2. 6. To quiz, to draw out, to play upon; to take advantage of the ignorance of. ( Prov .) "I presently perceived she was (what is vernacularly termed) trailing Mrs. Dent: that is, playing on her ignorance; her trail might be clever, but it was decidedly not good-natured."-C. Brontè: Jane Eyre, ch. xvii. II. Mil .: To carry, as a rifle, in an oblique, forward position, the piece being held in the right hand in front of the breech; as, to trail arms. B. Intransitive: 1. To be trailed or dragged along the ground behind anything. "The chariot flies and Hector trails behind." Pope: Homer's Iliad, xxiv. 24. *2. To saunter, to walk idly or lazily. "He trails along the streets." -Character of a Town Gallant (1675), р. б. 3. To sweep or be drawn over a surface. "And through the momentary gloom Of shadows o'er the landscape trailing ." Long fellow: Golden Legend, iv. 4. To fall or hang down. "Rending her yellow locks, like wyrie gold About her shoulders care leslie downe trailing ." Spenser: Ruines of Time. 5. To grow to great length, especially when slender and creeping upon the ground, as a plant; to grow with long shoots or stems, so as to need support. *6. To extend, to stretch. "Cape Roxo is a low Cape and trayling to the seaward." -Hackluyt: Voyages , iii. 615. trail (1), *traile (1), *trayl, *trayle, substant. [TRAIL, v.] I. Ordinary Language: *1. A vehicle dragged or drawn along; a sled, a sledge. "They frank or keepe certaine dogs not much vnlike wolues, which they yoke together, as we do oxen and horses, to a sled or traile ." -Hackluyt. Voyages, iii. 87. "Out of the prease I me with drow therefore, And set me downe alone behind a traile , Full of leaues, to see a great meruaile." Chaucer: La Belle Dame sans Mercie.