trawl

verb

/trɔːl/

Verb Forms

present simple I / you / we / they trawl	/trɔːl/ /trɔːl/
he / she / it trawls	/trɔːlz/ /trɔːlz/
past simple trawled	/trɔːld/ /trɔːld/
past participle trawled	/trɔːld/ /trɔːld/
-ing form trawling	/ˈtrɔːlɪŋ/ /ˈtrɔːlɪŋ/

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[transitive, intransitive] to search through a large amount of information or a large number of people, places, etc. looking for a particular thing or person
- trawl something (for something/somebody) She trawled the shops for bargains.
- Major companies trawl the universities for potential graduate trainees.
- trawl (through something) (for something/somebody) The police are trawling through their files for similar cases.
[intransitive] trawl (for something) to fish for something by pulling a large net with a wide opening through the water
Wordfinder
- bait
- bite
- dragnet
- fishing
- fly
- hook
- line
- net
- rod
- trawl

Word Originmid 16th cent. (as a verb): probably from Middle Dutch traghelen ‘to drag’ (related to traghel ‘dragnet’), perhaps from Latin tragula ‘dragnet’.

trawl

noun

/trɔːl/

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a search through a large amount of information, documents, etc.
- A quick trawl through the newspapers yielded five suitable job adverts.
(also trawl net)
a large net with a wide opening, that is dragged along the bottom of the sea by a boat in order to catch fishTopics Transport by waterc2

Word Originmid 16th cent. (as a verb): probably from Middle Dutch traghelen ‘to drag’ (related to traghel ‘dragnet’), perhaps from Latin tragula ‘dragnet’.