trawl
Americannoun
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Also called trawl net. a strong fishing net for dragging along the sea bottom.
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Also called trawl line. a buoyed line used in sea fishing, having numerous short lines with baited hooks attached at intervals.
verb (used without object)
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to fish with a net that drags along the sea bottom to catch the fish living there.
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to fish with a trawl line.
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to troll.
verb (used with object)
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to catch with a trawl net or a trawl line.
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to drag (a trawl net).
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to troll.
noun
verb
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sea fishing to catch or try to catch (fish) with a trawl net or trawl line
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sea fishing (tr) to drag (a trawl net) or suspend (a trawl line)
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to seek or gather (something, such as information, or someone, such as a likely appointee) from a wide variety of sources
noun
Other Word Forms
- trawlability noun
- trawlable adjective
Etymology
Origin of trawl
1475–85; < Middle Dutch tragel (noun), tragelen (v.); cognate with trail
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Investors trawling for value stocks have also boosted shares of energy and materials names.
From MarketWatch
And the likes of Zudio and Max have brought about the "trendification" of affordable fashion for the first time, appealing to Gen-Z and young millennial buyers, by trawling the latest fads in Paris and Milan.
From BBC
Detectives will also have done their own trawl of the three million documents in the Epstein files, and they will have asked for unredacted copies from the FBI or the US Department of Justice.
From BBC
From that list of 40 or 50 people, it was easy to find and trawl their social media.
From BBC
Sadat, who herself has been living in Germany since Taliban authorities retook power in 2021, said that trawling through locations outside Afghanistan was something she had been used to for a long time.
From Barron's
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
