trot1
/trɒt
/verb (trots, trotting, trotted)
1(With reference to a horse or other quadruped) proceed or cause to proceed at a pace faster than a walk, lifting each diagonal pair of legs alternately: [no object]: the horses trotted slowly through the night [with object]: he trotted his horse forward...
- I thought about paying to ride one of the horses, and slowly trotting down the road, until I was out of the sight of the zoo's curator, and then galloping away.
- By changing the relationship of these lines of influence, we can ask the horse to walk, trot, stop, back or turn and to do those things in a particular direction at a particular speed.
- We moved off, and I walked, trotted, and cantered on a horse I had only dreamed about owning.
2 [no object, with adverbial of direction] (Of a person) run at a moderate pace with short steps: the child trotted across to her obediently...
- The tall, thin volleyball player trotted quickly up the steps toward another endless hallway of oblivious dark.
- Steven trotted up the steps to his home, clutching a bouquet of wild flowers in his hand.
- Students trot on and off campus completely oblivious to the huge potential for campus life that lies just beneath their noses.
Synonyms
run, jog, jogtrot, dogtrot, lope;
scamper, scuttle, scurry, bustle
2.1 informal Go or walk briskly: I may trot round to Portobello market for vegetables...
- Lady hesitated for a moment, watching the two in front of her with an inquisitive look before trotting off briskly to catch up.
- She trotted briskly into the ring and saluted the judge and then she started.
- Her face became even more troubled, and she trotted off briskly towards their monument.
noun
1A trotting pace: our horses slowed to a trot...
- As Charcoal neared the edge of the woods, Mark leaned forward in the saddle, making her change her pace from a trot to a full-fledged gallop.
- Kat walked Jazz for several minutes before increasing his pace to a trot.
- Grant looked back behind their Jeep and saw Arian keeping pace at a mere trot.
1.1An act or period of trotting: you might like an early morning trot round the crew deck...
- The day starts with the early morning trots and gallops.
- We've now been assured by the owner that the horse is safe and secure and won't be making any more midnight trots out alone.
- Although Danielle tries not to play favorites, Twig definitely is her first choice for a nice early morning trot or a late summer's evening ride.
1.2 (the trots) Australian /NZ informal Trotting races: she was taking me to the trots...
- They would rail about people who went to the trots or to the races and spent their pay packets on the horses.
- And as soon as the last race finishes, Sky switches to the trots and dogs.
- If ever there was an industry in desperate need of rationalisation, it's the racing industry, from horses, to dogs and the trots.
2 (the trots) informal Diarrhoea.'While living in Papua New Guinea as a child, my father and I got a bad case of the trots.’...
- Rehydration salts - Ah, the trots, I know a lot of people who never leave home without them, so a couple of these sachets tucked away won't come in wrong.
- Where I come from, ‘trots’ has always been slang for diarrhea, i.e. ‘I had a terrible case of the trots this morning after all those pints last night.’
3 [with adjective] Australian /NZ informal A period of luck of a specified kind: Simpson believes his bad trot is about to end...
- Well it was a quote from Theodore Roosevelt, which I put into my wallet very early on in my career after a particularly bad trot.
- The only thing that motivates this Minister is when he gets three bad trots on the TV show night after night.
- I think it helped that I played first-class cricket, it helps you to know what the players are thinking and going through if they are having a bad trot.
Phrases
on the trot
Phrasal verbs
trot something out
Origin
Middle English: from Old French trot (noun), troter (verb), from medieval Latin trottare, of Germanic origin.
Rhymes
Trot2
/trɒt/noun informal, chiefly derogatory
A Trotskyist or supporter of extreme left-wing views: a band of subversive Trots he declared that the Corporation was a ‘nest of long-haired Trots’...
- It admits that a third of its executive committee are Trots, and there does seem to be a hardline Bolshevik edge to the organisation's campaigning.
- In Marxist terms, the Trots have preferred feudal theocracy to bourgeois democracy which - in non-Marxist terms - is disgraceful and stupid, as a few members of the far Left are starting to realise.
- The days of Trots taking over constituency Labour parties did Labour no good.
Origin
1960s: abbreviation.