trickle
Americanverb (used without object)
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to flow or fall by drops, or in a small, gentle stream.
Tears trickled down her cheeks.
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to come, go, or pass bit by bit, slowly, or irregularly.
The guests trickled out of the room.
verb (used with object)
verb
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to run or cause to run in thin or slow streams
she trickled the sand through her fingers
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(intr) to move, go, or pass gradually
the crowd trickled away
noun
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a thin, irregular, or slow flow of something
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the act of trickling
Other Word Forms
- trickling adjective
- tricklingly adverb
- trickly adjective
Etymology
Origin of trickle
1325–75; Middle English triklen, trekelen (v.), apparently sandhi variant of strikle, perhaps equivalent to strike (in obsolete sense “flow”) + -le
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.
Ahuja says margins are expected to increase over the course of this fiscal year, but won’t show up in the first quarter, as costs related to the job cuts will still be trickling through.
Eventually, the bounce lessened to a dribble, and then the dribble sputtered to a trickle, until it finally reduced back to his usual lumbering step.
From Literature
Spanberger countered that stock market gains weren’t trickling down to the average American.
From Salon
The crisis has trickled down to fruit and vegetable vendors in a country that imports 80 percent of its food.
From Barron's
After the town locked down during and after the raid, residents began trickling out on Monday, he said, with warnings to make their way home carefully.
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.
