tracel (tras)

[ Surface IMG:content-0683.png:[blocks in formation] cf. also dice.] One of the two straps, ropes, or chains by which a carriage, wagon, or other vehicle is drawn by a harne ed horse or other draft-animal. See cut under harne . Than think eth he, "Thogh I praunce al byforn, First in the trayse , ful fat and newe shorne, Yet am I but an hors, and horses law I mote endure, and with my feeres drawe." Chaucer, Troilus, 1. 222. IMG:content-0684.png:[blocks in formation] trachea Pliny, the onely man among the Latines who is a diligent and curious tracer of the prints of Nature's footsteps. Hake will , Apology, III. i. 5. (a) A small slender steel instrument, having a handle in the middle and its ends pointed more or le , and one of them usually also curved and edged, used in di ection as a compromise between scalpel and probe for tracing out the course of nerves, ve els, etc. It is usually held like a pen, and may be pushed into or drawn through ti ue, as desired. Also called seeker. (b) One whose duty it is to trace or search out mi ing articles, as railway-cars, milk-cans, or letters. Nearly all the great roads employ a corps of what are known as "lost car searchers" or tracers. Sci. Amer., N. S., LIX. 217. (c) An inquiry sent out from a post-office, expre -office, railway-station, or other establishment after some mi ing letter, package, car, etc. (d) One who copies or makes tracings of drawings, etc. (e) An instrument, like a stylus, for tracing drawings, etc., on superimposed paper. (f) A simple kind of pantograph. (g) A form of outline or copying-machine. It consists e entially of a long bar balanced by means of a universal joint near one end. The longer arm is directed toward the drawing, design, or other work to be copied on a reduced scale, and the shorter arm carries a pencil. On moving the point of the long arm over the work, the pencil on the short arm reproduces a reduced copy of the work on paper held before it. By reversing the relative positions of the pointer and pencil, an enlarged copy may be made. Also called tra cing -machine. (h) A tool, sometimes a small smooth-edged wheel set in a handle, by means of which a continuous line is impre ed, as in ornamental metal-work. traceried (tra's er-id), a. [