Online dictionaryOnline dictionary
Synonyms, antonyms, pronunciation

  Home
English Dictionary      examples: 'day', 'get rid of', 'New York Bay'




Trace   /treɪs/   Listen
Trace

noun
1.
A just detectable amount.  Synonyms: hint, suggestion.
2.
An indication that something has been present.  Synonyms: shadow, tincture, vestige.  "A tincture of condescension"
3.
A suggestion of some quality.  Synonyms: ghost, touch.  "He detected a ghost of a smile on her face"
4.
A drawing created by superimposing a semitransparent sheet of paper on the original image and copying on it the lines of the original image.  Synonym: tracing.
5.
Either of two lines that connect a horse's harness to a wagon or other vehicle or to a whiffletree.
6.
A visible mark (as a footprint) left by the passage of person or animal or vehicle.



Related searches:



WordNet 3.0 © 2010 Princeton University








Advanced search
     Find words:
Starting with
Ending with
Containing
Matching a pattern  

Synonyms
Antonyms
Quotes
Words linked to  

only single words



Share |
Add this dictionary
to your browser search bar





"Trace" Quotes from Famous Books



... Peninsula. How much more gracious was the statement of another great authority on Spain—Sir William Stirling-Maxwell—who said that 'so great a literary achievement had never before been performed under so humble a title.' The article, however, furnishes a trace of autobiography in the statement by Borrow that he had long been in the habit of reading Don Quixote once every nine years. Yet he tells us that he prefers Le Sage's Gil Blas to Don Quixote, 'the characters introduced being certainly more true to nature.' ...
— George Borrow and His Circle - Wherein May Be Found Many Hitherto Unpublished Letters Of - Borrow And His Friends • Clement King Shorter

... were almost mountains now, and sloped away on all sides of us in bleak and awful grandeur. The woodlands were fewer; we were on the moors. Only a few hours back we had been amongst deep hedges and shady lanes, and now for hedges we had stone walls, and for deep embowered lanes we could trace the unsheltered roads, gleaming as they wound over miles of distant hills. Deep below us brawled a river, with here and there a gaunt mill or stone-built hamlet on ...
— Six to Sixteen - A Story for Girls • Juliana Horatia Ewing

... To trace the mischievous effects of a mutable government would fill a volume. I will hint a few only, each of which will be perceived to be ...
— The Federalist Papers • Alexander Hamilton, John Jay, and James Madison

... A portion of the forest spell departed with it, and Tayoga, returning to thoughts of his task, rose and walked on, instinct rather than will causing him to keep a close watch on earth and foliage. When he saw the faint trace of a large moccasin on the earth all that was left of the spell departed suddenly and he became at once the wilderness warrior, active, alert, ready to ...
— The Shadow of the North - A Story of Old New York and a Lost Campaign • Joseph A. Altsheler

... their ears with a weird music. To creep to the edge of the cliff, to sit upon the brown branches of some fallen pine, and putting aside the dried tassels to look down upon the backs of wheeling hawks that seemed to hang in mid-air was a never failing delight. Here Polly would try to trace the winding red ribbon of road that was continually losing itself among the dense pines of the opposite mountains; here she would listen to the far off strokes of a woodman's axe, or the rattle of some heavy waggon, miles ...
— The Queen of the Pirate Isle • Bret Harte

... through a Palladian vestibule, a hall which they felt must be of huge dimensions, though with the aid of a single torch it was impossible to trace its limits, either of extent or of elevation. Then bowing before them, and lighting as it were their immediate steps, the steward guided them down a long and lofty corridor, which led to the entrance of several chambers, all vast, with little furniture, but their wells ...
— Lothair • Benjamin Disraeli

... your own piano. Run over a group of your favorites and see how many musical punches you can find that are not due directly to the theme. Pick out the catchy variations in a dozen songs—you may chance on one or two where the biggest punch is not in the theme. Of course you may trace it all back to the theme, but nevertheless it still stands out a distinct punch in the variation. If you can add this punch to your theme-punch, your song ...
— Writing for Vaudeville • Brett Page

... never had the luck to Trace up those shuffling negroes, Nile or Niger, To that impracticable place Timbuctoo, Where Geography finds no one to oblige her With such a chart as may be safely stuck to— For Europe ploughs in Afric like "bos piger:"[639] But if I had been at Timbuctoo, there ...
— The Works of Lord Byron, Volume 6 • Lord Byron

... the privilege of being introduced to Lord Russell. He at once received me with a warmth and kindness I can never forget, and from this time till near the end of his life I saw him very frequently. His Ministerial career had just terminated, but I could trace no failure in his powers, and, whatever difference of opinion there might be about his public career, no one, I believe, who ever came in contact with him failed to recognise his singular charm in private life. His conversation differed from that of some of the more illustrious of his contemporaries. ...
— Lord John Russell • Stuart J. Reid

... friends of Antigone and Ismene; and you shall enter the wood of the Eumenides without shuddering, and leave it without the trace of a tear. Never did you appear so graceful to me, O Ternissa—no, not even after this walk do you—as when I saw you blow a fly from the forehead of Philoctetes in the propylea. The wing, with which Sophocles ...
— Imaginary Conversations and Poems - A Selection • Walter Savage Landor

... on a larger scale to England, Mr. Wheelock decided to make yet one more effort there for an act of incorporation. A letter from Mr. Smith, written evidently about this time, no date being attached, contains advice to Mr. Wheelock in which we trace one of the most prominent features of the Charter. He proposes, in substance: "an application to the King for a short Charter incorporating. First, A sett of gentlemen in the Colonies near Mr. Wheelock, ...
— The History of Dartmouth College • Baxter Perry Smith

... fine specimen of Saxon and Gothic, and a small portion of the choir. The church, its transepts, north and south aisles, and chancel, are gone; and the dormitory, refectory, cloisters, &c. have scarcely left any trace of their gorgeous existence. The lonely ash and sturdy briar vegetate over the ashes of barons and prelates; and the unfeeling peasants intrude their rustic games on the holy place, ignorant of its former ...
— The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction, - Vol. 12, Issue 328, August 23, 1828 • Various

... scholarly vestments proper to occasions of learned solemnity or to the seasons of social amenity within the college circle. Apart from the mechanical difficulty of so large a task, it would scarcely be a difficult matter to trace this correlation. The like is true of the vogue ...
— The Theory of the Leisure Class • Thorstein Veblen

... I can get any trace of her," he went on. "She may run into danger without knowing it, for she hasn't had much experience in life, even if she is ...
— Joe Strong on the Trapeze - or The Daring Feats of a Young Circus Performer • Vance Barnum

... since I am not rich, and I feel ready for any sacrifice.... You don't answer me? You don't believe me? Do you think I speak lightly? But remember these last days! Surely for a long time past you must have known that everything—understand me—everything else has vanished long ago and left no trace? Look at me, say one word to me ... I love ... I love ...
— Fathers and Children • Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev

... was striving to blast out by the roots; and, finding it difficult to avoid them, he had, as soon as he was put in possession of his small income, deliberately transferred himself to the Five Points, where they would hardly be likely to trace him, certainly ...
— Sleeping Fires • Gertrude Atherton

... nearly too blown to speak. There was a brisk life and color in her face, and all her attention was absorbed in watching the flight of the birds. Lavender fancied he saw in the fixed and keen look something of old Mackenzie's gray eye: it was the first trace of a likeness to her father he ...
— Lippincott's Magazine of Popular Literature and Science, Vol. XII, No. 28. July, 1873. • Various

... violences of crafty politicians and discontented nobles, we shall now turn to trace the prosperous and honorable career of a private English merchant, whose abilities and integrity introduced him to the notice of his sovereign, and whose patriotic munificence still preserves to him ...
— Memoirs of the Court of Queen Elizabeth • Lucy Aikin

... to try. After the first salutation, there was a certain hesitation about Raynal which Josephine had never seen a trace of in him before; so, to put him at his ease, and at the same time keep her promise to Rose, she asked timidly if their mutual friend had been able to ...
— White Lies • Charles Reade

... the czar on behalf of his coreligionists. It is natural to suspect that no trouble is entirely undeserved; it is but human to sympathize with our friends, and yet regard their suffering as a judgment rather than a misfortune. But Montefiore's trip to Russia dispelled the last trace of suspicion against the Russian Jews. In spite of their poverty, he saw numerous charitable and educational institutions in every city he visited. He found the Jewish men to be the cream of Russia. "He had the satisfaction," Doctor Loewe, ...
— The Haskalah Movement in Russia • Jacob S. Raisin

... his vast knowledge of living animals gave him no clue, established by means of most laborious investigations the astounding conclusion, that, prior to the existence of the animals and plants now living, this globe had been the theatre of another set of beings, every trace of whom had vanished from the face of the earth. To his alert and active intellect and powerful imagination a word spoken out of the past was pregnant with meaning; and when he had once convinced himself that he had found a single animal that had no counterpart ...
— Atlantic Monthly, Vol. 10, No. 61, November, 1862 • Various

... ages; and because he was thus commanded and inspired by God, his literature represents the most perfect and trustworthy expression of the primitive revelations. From the very beginning, therefore, we trace this interdependence of literature. Moses, authorized by God, turns to all that is best in the older Babylonian, Egyptian and Indic literature, and uses it to regenerate and uplift the Hebrew race, so that we see the things contained in the Bible remained the ...
— The Interdependence of Literature • Georgina Pell Curtis

... the staged tower that rises at the north-western corner of the mound) a sepulchral vault in which the body of a king must once have been deposited (Discoveries, pp. 126, 128), but he confesses that he found nothing in it, neither human remains nor any trace of sepulchral furniture. His conjecture is therefore entirely in the air, and he himself only puts it forth under all reserve. The difficulty of this inquiry is increased by the fact that the people of different religions by whom the Assyrians were succeeded always chose by preference to bury ...
— A History of Art in Chaldaea & Assyria, v. 1 • Georges Perrot

... cruiser squadron was detached to search for Warrior, which vessel had been abandoned whilst in tow of Engadine on her way to the base owing to bad weather setting in and the vessel becoming unseaworthy, but no trace of her was discovered, and a further subsequent search by a light-cruiser squadron having failed to locate her, it is evident ...
— World's War Events, Vol. II • Various

... retired with these words, and betook herself to bed. When she was gone, Mr. Peggotty, who had not exhibited a trace of any feeling but the profoundest sympathy, looked round upon us, and nodding his head with a lively expression of that sentiment still animating his face, ...
— David Copperfield • Charles Dickens

... says:—"There was a singular physical fact connected with him (Sir Edward Belcher), he had entirely lost the sense of taste; this he frequently complained of, and could not account for. A friend of mine, an eminent member of the Bar, suffers in the same way, but is able to trace the phenomenon to the shock that he ...
— Railway Adventures and Anecdotes - extending over more than fifty years • Various

... Coptic, Syriac, Latin, and Greek, while the fiery temper of the girl grew into the nobler ambitions of the maiden. But above all things, as became her mingled Arabic and Egyptian blood—for she could trace her ancestry back to the free chiefs of the Arabian desert, and to the dauntless Cleopatra of Egypt,—she loved the excitement of the chase, and in the plains and mountains beyond the city she learned to ride and hunt with all the skill and daring ...
— Historic Girls • E. S. Brooks

... the wrest-plank and the belly-rail in these German instruments. As to Stein's escapement, his hopper was fixed behind the key; the axis of the hammer rising on a principle which I think is older than Stein, but have not been able to trace to its source, and the position of his hammer is reversed. Stein's light and facile movement with shallow key-fall, resembling Cristofori's in bearing little weight, was gratefully accepted by the German ...
— Scientific American Supplement, No. 385, May 19, 1883 • Various

... of specific work that we have been able to trace is an address delivered in Earlville by A. J. Grover, esq., in 1855, who from that time until the present has been an able champion of the constitutional rights of women. As a result of his efforts, and the discussion ...
— History of Woman Suffrage, Volume III (of III) • Various

... happened, how desolate his loss would leave her. Then the Prince of Wales was always 'Bertie,' and the Princess Royal 'Vicky,' and the family circle generally a group as loving and united—without a trace of courtly stiffness—as was to be found round ...
— Queen Victoria • Anonymous

... type of Chinese architecture most familiar to the West, probably owes its peculiar form to Buddhist influence. In the pagoda alone may be found some trace of a religious imagination such as in Europe made Gothic architecture so full and splendid an expression of the aspiring spirit. The most famous pagoda was the Porcelain Tower of Nanking, destroyed by the ...
— Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 6, Slice 2 - "Chicago, University of" to "Chiton" • Various

... onwards the sun begins to be pretty powerful in Yakutsk; in May it hardly leaves the horizon for a few hours and is roasting hot; but as long as the great Lena has not thrown off the shackles of winter, and as long as the huge masses of unmelted snow are lying in the taiga,[1] you can see no trace of spring. The snow is not warmed by the earth, which has been frozen hard to the depth of several feet, and this thick crust of ice opposes determined resistance to the lifegiving rays, and only after long, patient ...
— Selected Polish Tales • Various

... To trace the causes and indicate the character of this sudden and irreversible revulsion of feeling is to relate the story of the public career of James Otis as primus inter pares and leader of the popular party in the Province of Massachusetts. For ten years, ...
— The New England Magazine, Volume 1, No. 4, Bay State Monthly, Volume 4, No. 4, April, 1886 • Various

... in the Southern States thirty years since; they "went to those who succeeded to the property of the works, and they could be sold, bartered, or pawned". (1) "There is", says J. M. Robertson, "no trace that the Protestant clergy of Scotland ever raised a voice against the slavery which grew up before their eyes. And it was not until 1799, after republican and irreligious France had set the example, that ...
— Humanity's Gain from Unbelief - Reprinted from the "North American Review" of March, 1889 • Charles Bradlaugh

... puzzling for a while. The driver might have been turning around to go back the way he had come. But it was more likely that he had driven into the cross street to the west. He strolled over that way, but the light was too dim to trace automobile tracks in the dust of the street so he went back to the adobe cabin and put in the next hour oiling and cleaning and polishing a 25-35 carbine which he meant to give Helen May, and in filling ...
— Starr, of the Desert • B. M Bower

... in the thousand year of our Lord JESUS CHRIST, two hundred and eleventh year, one Pope, the tenth GREGORY, ordained new tithes first to be given to priests now in the New Law. But Saint PAUL in his time (whose trace or example, all priests of GOD enforce them to follow), seeing the covetousness that was among the people (desiring to destroy this foul sin, through the grace of GOD, and true virtuous living and example of himself) wrote and taught ...
— Fifteenth Century Prose and Verse • Various

... he growled at poor Jess when she crept towards him with watchful, affectionate eyes. So Jess got out, to the extent of a dozen yards, with the mark of one of Bill's heavy boots on her glossy flank. She bore not a trace of malice, and would have cheerfully fought to the death for her man at that moment; but she was full of vague distress and whimpering uneasiness; of dim, unhappy presentiments. And in all this Finn shared ...
— Finn The Wolfhound • A. J. Dawson

... Atlantic, who said, 'I am not dazzled by the great names which I see recorded in high places; I am not attracted by the statues which are raised to the men whom you call illustrious, but what does strike me, what does delight me, what does fascinate me, is to trace the working man of England to his home; to see him there labouring at his loom unnoticed and unknown, toiling before the sun rises, nor ceasing to toil when the sun has descended beneath the mountain. ...
— The Economist - Volume 1, No. 3 • Various

... servant named Protopopoff—who afterwards became Minister of the Interior and a spy of Germany—the "saint" never held himself cheap. That was one of the secrets of his astounding career. Though he possessed no education and could scarcely trace his own name, he possessed the most acute brain of any lawyer or banker in Petrograd. In every sense he was abnormal, just as abnormal as Joan of Arc, Saint Anthony, Saint Francis, or a dozen ...
— The Minister of Evil - The Secret History of Rasputin's Betrayal of Russia • William Le Queux

... "Those fellows may be pretty rough amongst their own neighbors, and do things that are mighty bad, but when they get amongst outsiders, they know that an inquiry would be made to trace the chaps who disappear. All three boys are safe, I really believe. At least, I'll require ...
— Boy Scouts in Southern Waters • G. Harvey Ralphson

... aided powerfully in determining the entrance of the Western world upon an industrial epoch,—an epoch which has for its final object the complete subjection of the powers of nature to purposes of individual comfort and happiness. We have now to trace some of the effects of this lately-begun industrial development upon social life and individual culture. And as we studied the leisureliness of antiquity where its effects were most conspicuous, in the ...
— The Unseen World and Other Essays • John Fiske

... one. I am what I have been growing to be all these years. I can trace the sequence of cause and effect until ...
— His Sombre Rivals • E. P. Roe

... Socrates was a stonecutter and his mother a midwife, so very naturally the son had a beautiful contempt for pedigree. Socrates once said to Plato, "Anybody can trace to Codrus—by paying enough to the man who makes the family-tree." This seems to show that genealogy was a matter of business then as now, and that nothing is new under the sun. Yet with all his contempt ...
— Little Journeys To The Homes Of Great Teachers • Elbert Hubbard

... confess himself to be worse than all the rest, and indeed a rascal without necessity, out of pure delight in rascality. If one only had the spur of danger which in the outer world clothed this hunting with so much poetry! But here there was not a trace of it! The Freelanders would not even have pursued us if we had bolted with our embezzled booty; we might have run off as unmolested as so many mangy dogs. No; here I neither would nor could be a rascal. I called my companions together to tell them that I resigned my position as director, withdrew ...
— Freeland - A Social Anticipation • Theodor Hertzka

... the Hungarian nobleman came not, all these dreams began to vanish into thin air, and, like the unsubstantial fabric of a vision, to leave no trace behind them. ...
— Varney the Vampire - Or the Feast of Blood • Thomas Preskett Prest

... she scornfully supposed to be the cupidity of the Englishman. She produced, indeed, a full and particular account of Daphne Floyd's parentage, possessions, and prospects, during which the General's countenance represented him with great fidelity. A trace of recalcitrance at the beginning—for it was his opinion that Miss Boyson, like most American women, talked decidedly too much—gave way to close attention, then to astonishment, and finally to a very animated ...
— Marriage a la mode • Mrs. Humphry Ward

... we left the boat a-driftin' off down stream and swum ashore, a-thinkin' he'd jist drownded hisse'f a-purpose. But ther' was more su'prise waitin' far us yit,—for lo-and-behold-you, when we got ashore ther' wasn't no trace o' Steve er the baby to be found. Ezry said he seed Steve when he fetched little Annie ashore, and she was all right on'y she was purt nigh past cryin'; and he said Steve had lapped his coat around her and give her to him to take ...
— Pipes O'Pan at Zekesbury • James Whitcomb Riley

... in Spenserian metre, by James Beattie. Its design was to trace the progress of a poetic genius, born in a rude age, from the first dawn of fancy to the fullness of poetic rapture. The first canto is descriptive of Edwin, the minstrel; canto ii. is dull philosophy, and there, happily, the poem ...
— Character Sketches of Romance, Fiction and the Drama - A Revised American Edition of the Reader's Handbook, Vol. 3 • E. Cobham Brewer

... looking round the room, and not seeing the least trace of the tragic event which was supposed ...
— The Mysteries of Paris V2 • Eugene Sue

... with the engraved portrait published in the Naval Chronicle, 1814, nor with the miniature from which it was reproduced. In a letter to Captain Stuart she wrote: "In the portrait you will not be able to trace much of your departed friend. The miniature from which it was taken is but an indifferent likeness, and the engraver has not done justice to it. He has given the firmness of the countenance but not the intelligence or ...
— The Life of Captain Matthew Flinders • Ernest Scott

... spring's work; but on Captain Sproule's second passing of Mrs. Fogg's farm, I joined him, not as a driver, but as a full hand. I kept thinking all the time of my mother, and felt that if I kept to the canal I surely should find some trace of her. In this I was doing what any detective would have done; for everything sooner or later passed through the Erie Canal—news, goods and passengers. But I had little hope when I thought of the flood which surged back and forth through this river of news, and of the little bit of a net ...
— Vandemark's Folly • Herbert Quick

... brooding silence followed, until the footsteps again returned, the door was thrown open, and he stepped out, dazed by the light, feeble as it was. The lamp was held by the man with the scar on his cheek, the couch upon which the wounded man had lain was empty; a faint trace of light shone through the chinks of the crazy ...
— A Bachelor's Dream • Mrs. Hungerford

... jealous of Linda's serenity of youth, as her appearance showed the effect of her wasting emotions. Things quite extraordinary had happened: once Linda's skin had been almost seriously affected by an irritation that immediately followed the trace of her powder-puff; and at several times she had had clumsily composed anonymous notes of ...
— Linda Condon • Joseph Hergesheimer

... impossible to learn the genesis of a rumour. It may be started by a look, a word, a gesture, and it spreads with such marvellous rapidity that by the time public curiosity is fully aroused, no one can trace the original source, so many and winding are the channels through which it has flowed. Yet there are exceptions to this general rule, especially in criminal cases, where, for the safety of the public, it is absolutely necessary to get to the bottom of the matter. Therefore, the rumour which pervaded ...
— The Bishop's Secret • Fergus Hume

... followed stormy day, and still they found no trace of Marion, got no glimpse of Jack. There were days when the wind made it physically impossible to climb the peak and search for the cave under Taylor Rock, dangerous to be abroad in the woods. Hank had said that he knew about where ...
— The Lookout Man • B. M. Bower

... be angry with me!" murmured Pepper, with a trace of tears in his voice. "If you get ...
— The Mystery at Putnam Hall - The School Chums' Strange Discovery • Arthur M. Winfield

... dropp'd, his crew the vessels moor. They turn their heads to sea, their sterns to land, And greet with greedy joy th' Italian strand. Some strike from clashing flints their fiery seed; Some gather sticks, the kindled flames to feed, Or search for hollow trees, and fell the woods, Or trace thro' valleys the discover'd floods. Thus, while their sev'ral charges they fulfil, The pious prince ascends the sacred hill Where Phoebus is ador'd; and seeks the shade Which hides from sight his venerable maid. Deep in a cave the Sibyl makes abode; Thence full of fate returns, and of the ...
— The Aeneid • Virgil

... surprised to see the infant race Treading the paths of vice? Their eyes can trace Their parents' footsteps in the way they go: What shame, what fear, then, can their ...
— The Infant System - For Developing the Intellectual and Moral Powers of all Children, - from One to Seven years of Age • Samuel Wilderspin

... within his sight; for Oberon was fell and wroth, because she, as her attendant, had a lovely boy, a sweet changeling, and that jealous Oberon would have the child to be a knight of his train to trace ...
— The Mysteries of All Nations • James Grant

... substances. Wool when growing in its natural state is lubricated and protected by a sticky substance called "grease" or "suinte;" this consists to the extent of nearly half its weight of carbonate of potash, hardly a trace of soda being present. It is very evident, therefore, that potash must be more suitable for washing wool than soda, as the teaching of ...
— Scientific American Supplement, No. 288 - July 9, 1881 • Various

... as it wore on, and still the breeze kept light. We slid through the water slowly, leaving scarce a trace of wake behind us. Haigh smoked and drank vermouth; Taltavull busied himself below with dealing, on paper, with tremendous sums of money; I bathed at intervals, diving from the bowsprit end, and climbing aboard again by the ...
— The Recipe for Diamonds • Charles John Cutcliffe Wright Hyne

... the purest water which occurs in nature is rain-water, and if this be collected in a secluded district, and after the air has been well washed by previous rain, its purity is remarkable; the extraneous matter consisting of little else than a trace of carbonic acid and other gases dissolved from the air. In fact, such water is far purer than any distilled water to be obtained in commerce. The case is very different when the rain-water is collected in a town ...
— Scientific American Supplement No. 360, November 25, 1882 • Various

... Windygates—now that Anne had apparently obliterated all trace of herself—was becoming serious. The one chance on which the discovery of Arnold's position depended, was the chance that accident might reveal the truth in the lapse of time. In this posture of circumstances, Sir Patrick now resolved—if ...
— Man and Wife • Wilkie Collins

... that there were little things going on of which he no longer heard. Jessica was beginning to feel that her affairs were her own. George, Jr., flourished about as if he were a man entirely and must needs have private matters. All this Hurstwood could see, and it left a trace of feeling, for he was used to being considered—in his official position, at least—and felt that his importance should not begin to wane here. To darken it all, he saw the same indifference and ...
— Sister Carrie • Theodore Dreiser

... would recall the face of the girl whom I had seen in the morning, and every feature would bring back the child of the mountains. Then I went to directories and searched them for the name of Rufus Blight, but I could get no trace of him. I evolved a theory that Penelope was the guest of the woman with the Pomeranian. The carriage must belong to either the elder or the younger woman. Granting that the younger was Penelope, then the elder could not be her mother. ...
— David Malcolm • Nelson Lloyd

... argumentative amours of Ibsen's idiotic, rebellious heroines, and had now reached the theory of pure intangible beauty. She deemed Santerre's last creation, Anne-Marie, to be far too material and degraded, because in one deplorable passage the author remarked that Norbert's kisses had left their trace on the Countess's brow. Santerre disputed the quotation, whereupon she rushed upon the volume and sought the page ...
— Fruitfulness - Fecondite • Emile Zola

... flickered over her trim figure, and he thought—maybe. She had a trace of Seminole blood, he decided—with the quiet sultriness that ...
— Collectivum • Mike Lewis

... safely defy my power. From threats I descended to entreaties. I even endeavoured to wind the truth from him by artifice. I promised him a part of the debt if he would enable me to recover the whole. I offered him a considerable reward if he would merely afford me a clue by which I might trace him to his retreat; but all was insufficient. He merely put on an air of perplexity and shook his head in token ...
— Arthur Mervyn - Or, Memoirs of the Year 1793 • Charles Brockden Brown

... tribes of the race of Israel whom the Assyrians carried off into captivity (see 2 Kings xvii. 6), and of whom all trace has been lost, and only in ...
— The Nuttall Encyclopaedia - Being a Concise and Comprehensive Dictionary of General Knowledge • Edited by Rev. James Wood

... seventh and last— The hero hailed the sign!— And on the wished-for beam hung fast That slender, silken line! Slight as it was, his spirit caught The more than omen, for his thought The lesson well could trace, Which even "he who runs may read," That Perseverance gains its meed, ...
— The World's Best Poetry, Volume 8 • Various

... yachting excursions, marred by stormy weather, the Court went north, and reached Balmoral on the 30th of August. The tower and the offices, with the terraces and pleasure-grounds, were finished, and every trace of the old house had disappeared. The Balmoral of to- day, though it still lacked what has become some of its essential features, stood before the Queen. We are fain to make it stand before our ...
— Life of Her Most Gracious Majesty the Queen, (Victoria) Vol II • Sarah Tytler

... tension of his father; the disposition to feast as well as the capacity to fast; to take all, feel all, do all, with an avidity greater by reason of the grinding abstinence and the later indulgence of his forbears. A sage versed in the lore of heredity as modified by environment may some day trace for us the progress across this continent of an austere Puritan, showing how the strain emerges from the wilderness at the Western ocean with a character so widely differing from the one with which he began the adventurous ...
— The Spenders - A Tale of the Third Generation • Harry Leon Wilson

... Marsil his council end. "Lords," he said, "on my errand wend; While olive branches in hand ye bring, Say from me unto Karl the king, For sake of his God let him pity show; And ere ever a month shall come and go, With a thousand faithful of my race, I will follow swiftly upon his trace, Freely receive his Christian law, And his liegemen be in love and awe. Hostages asks he? it shall be done." Blancandrin answered, "Your peace ...
— The Harvard Classics, Volume 49, Epic and Saga - With Introductions And Notes • Various

... ways, whithersoever the occasions of their respective callings carried them; nothing in any quarter that bore any appearance of panic or even of surprise; he looked around at every object, attentively inquiring where the war had been. No trace was there of any thing having been removed, or brought forward for the occasion; so completely was every thing in a state of steady tranquil peace, so that it scarcely seemed that even the rumour of war could have ...
— The History of Rome, Books 01 to 08 • Titus Livius

... likeness to beasts and human figures. One high-shouldered specimen, partly hidden in the shadow, had the appearance of a man with a cloak or serape thrown over his left shoulder. As Demorest's wandering eyes at last became fixed upon it, he fancied he could trace the faint outlines of a pale face, the lower part of which was hidden by the folds of the serape. There certainly was the forehead, the curve of the dark eyebrows, the shadow of a nose, and even as he looked more steadily, a glistening ...
— The Argonauts of North Liberty • Bret Harte

... said, adding, with a trace of hesitation: "It won't take long though, and if you don't mind waiting till I get back I'd like to have that talk with the old lady he knocked down. It's necessary to see her as soon ...
— The Outdoor Girls at the Hostess House • Laura Lee Hope

... in the eagerness of her watchfulness. The dark circles about her eyes made them look very large and sombre. The corners of her mouth turned down and her under-lip quivered now and then, giving her expression a childlike piteousness of appeal. There was no trace of disorder in her appearance. Her white dressing-gown and all its pretty ribbons and laces were spotlessly fresh. Her hair was carefully dressed as usual—high at the back, showing the nape of her neck, ...
— The History of Sir Richard Calmady - A Romance • Lucas Malet

... of this letter, the Marquis lost not a moment in sending to all the inns in Amsterdam, Rotterdam, and the Hague, but in vain—he could find no trace of them. He began to despair of success, when the idea struck him that a young French page of his, remarkable for his quickness and intelligence, might be employed with advantage. He promised to reward him handsomely if he succeeded in finding the young woman, who was the cause of so much ...
— The Memoirs of Louis XV. and XVI., Volume 2 • Madame du Hausset, and of an Unknown English Girl and the Princess Lamballe

... special day—Every man, every building, every day belongs equally to God. That is my conviction. I think that the only possible existing sort of religions meeting is something after the fashion of the Quaker meeting. In that there is no professional religious man at all; not a trace of the sacrifices to the ancient gods.... And no room for a professional religions man...." He felt his argument did a little escape him. He snatched, "That is what I want to make clear to you. God is not a speciality; he ...
— Soul of a Bishop • H. G. Wells

... I have only emptied myself, that's all. Not a trace have my words left behind them. Everything is uninjured. And within me something blazed up; it has burned out, and there's nothing more there. What have I to hope for now? And everything ...
— Foma Gordyeff - (The Man Who Was Afraid) • Maxim Gorky

... Kikiula valley through Princeville. After a ride of about two and a half miles, we dismounted, and ascended a little eminence. What a scene was before us! Far below was the river with its rapids, the course of which we could trace down the valley for some distance. Around us were the mountains, on the left a bluff, and before us the Twin Peaks, with cascades in the distance. We galloped back, and soon overtook our cavalcade. We had a fine ride that day through groves of tropical-looking lohala-trees. Verdant valleys and ...
— Scenes in the Hawaiian Islands and California • Mary Evarts Anderson

... "Trace chains couldn't have held him back when he heard I was coming back to join you. They wouldn't give him a vacation, but they would not keep him in the school after he began to have regular violent fits," said ...
— The Boy Chums in the Forest - or Hunting for Plume Birds in the Florida Everglades • Wilmer M. Ely

... Rodolfinus and Guido Bigarelli of Como: they are all works of the twelfth century, and it is, as I think, no naive beginning we see, but the last hours of an art that is already thousands of years old, about to be born again in the work of Pisano. And indeed we may trace very happily the rise of Tuscan sculpture in Pistoja. Though she possesses no work of Niccolo himself, his influence is supreme in the pulpit of S. Giovanni Fuorcivitas, and it is the beautiful work of his son Giovanni ...
— Florence and Northern Tuscany with Genoa • Edward Hutton

... collections, "A Selection of Hymns and Poems for the Use of Believers," printed at Watervliet, in Ohio, 1833, one can trace some of the earlier trials of the societies, and the evils they had to contend with within themselves. The Western societies, for instance, appear to have early opposed the drinking of intoxicating beverages. Here is a rhyme, dated 1817, which appeals ...
— The Communistic Societies of the United States • Charles Nordhoff

... lady's tone was not too gracious, in fact there was a trace of suspicion in it, as if she was expecting the man on the step to produce a patent egg-beater or the specimen volume of a ...
— Fair Harbor • Joseph Crosby Lincoln

... issued out a Duct from each of these Cells, which ran into the Root of the Tongue, where both joined together, and passed forward in one common Duct to the Tip of it. We discovered several little Roads or Canals running from the Ear into the Brain, and took particular care to trace them out through their several Passages. One of them extended itself to a Bundle of Sonnets and little musical Instruments. Others ended in several Bladders which were filled either with Wind or Froth. But the latter Canal entered into a great Cavity of the ...
— The Spectator, Volume 2. • Addison and Steele

... a shilling; remember you have another to make for it. Find recreation in looking after your business, and so your business will not be neglected in looking after recreation.—Buy fair, sell fair, take care of the profits; look over the books regularly, and if you find an error, trace it out. Should a stroke of misfortune come upon you in trade, retrench—work harder, but never fly the track; confront difficulties with unflinching perseverance, and they will disappear at last, and you will be honored; but shrink from the task, ...
— Scientific American magazine Vol 2. No. 3 Oct 10 1846 • Various

... Draw and trace your outline in the same manner as before, and transfer it to the wood. You may make it any convenient size, say on a board 18 ins. long by 9 ins. wide, or what other shape you like, provided you observe one or two conditions which I am going to point ...
— Wood-Carving - Design and Workmanship • George Jack

... spirit proved stronger than Fate, stronger than numbers, stronger than brute force. It proved strong enough to assimilate the foreign barbarians, instead of becoming assimilated by them. It was strong enough to wipe out every trace of Asian and Slavic taint. It was strong enough to keep intact the Latin idea against the steely shock of Asian hordes, the immense, crushing weight of Slave fatalism, ...
— Defenders of Democracy • Militia of Mercy

... She wiped away every trace of tears, and drew the little table to the hearth-stone, and set out her humble service. And she quite put away her own trouble and spoke cheerfully, and ...
— The Hallam Succession • Amelia Edith Barr

... by his next interview with the major. When Carteret summoned him, an hour later, after the other gentlemen had taken their leave, Jerry had washed his head thoroughly and there remained no trace of the pomade. An attempt to darken the lighter spots in his cuticle by the application of printer's ink had not proved equally successful,—the retouching left the spots as much too dark as they had formerly ...
— The Marrow of Tradition • Charles W. Chesnutt

... word is employed many times; but whoever will trace the use of the words "soul" and "spirit" through the Bible, will find them applied also to a great variety of objects; as, person, mind, heart, body (in the expression "a dead body"), will, lust, appetite, breath, ...
— Modern Spiritualism • Uriah Smith

... to proceed from cause to effect is to proceed synthetically, since causes are more simple than effects. But if that which precedes in knowledge is later in the order of being, the process is one of analysis, as when our judgment deals with effects, which by analysis we trace to their simple causes. Now the principle in the inquiry of counsel is the end, which precedes indeed in intention, but comes afterwards into execution. Hence the inquiry of counsel must needs be one of analysis, beginning that is to say, from that which ...
— Summa Theologica, Part I-II (Pars Prima Secundae) - From the Complete American Edition • Saint Thomas Aquinas

... censor's office read that postscript, and rose in his wrath and sent a third Undersomething-or-other to look up Sara Lee at Morley's. But by this time she was embarked on the big adventure; and by the time a cable reached Calais there was no trace ...
— The Amazing Interlude • Mary Roberts Rinehart

... positive after-images can be performed as follows: Shut yourself in a dark closet for fifteen or twenty minutes to remove all trace of stimulation of the retina. With the eyes covered with several folds of thick black cloth go to a window, uncover the eyes and take a momentary look at the landscape, immediately covering the ...
— The Science of Human Nature - A Psychology for Beginners • William Henry Pyle

... those phlegmatic natures which can meekly tolerate such an indignity, I am searching for the fugitives—for what purpose I fancy you can guess. For four years my quest has been fruitless; I have been unable to find a trace of the guilty pair. A lucky chance at last led me to this secluded corner of the earth, and here I learned that—but, to be brief, Herr Count, I owe it to my heart and to my honor to ask you this question: Is not this lady by your side, who is always closely ...
— The Nameless Castle • Maurus Jokai

... scheme for utilizing the telegraph in notifying the Pirate's reappearance when it should be made. Then he had in addition thoroughly and minutely explored the whole of the country round, to see if any trace of the strange visitor were obtainable. His endeavours were quite fruitless, but he still held to his belief that he could not be far away; and the next time the Pirate did make his appearance he was ...
— The Motor Pirate • George Sidney Paternoster

... present abode to be concealed; and as they might see the picture, and might possibly recognise the style in spite of the false initials I have put in the corner, I take the precaution to give a false name to the place also, in order to put them on a wrong scent, if they should attempt to trace me out by it.' ...
— The Tenant of Wildfell Hall • Anne Bronte

... them; this would reconcile her to the kind of life that, with all its respectability and comfort, was so different from what she had lived before, and which Philip had often perceived that she felt to be dull and restraining. He already began to trace in the little girl, only a few days old, the lovely curves that he knew so well by heart in the mother's face. Sylvia, too, pale, still, and weak, was very happy; yes, really happy for the first time since her irrevocable ...
— Sylvia's Lovers — Complete • Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell

... suggested that one of her neighbours had called indeed, and finding the baby alone in the cottage, had taken it off to her own home to guard it. But this he felt to be a forlorn hope, and it proved a vain one. Neither search nor inquiry could trace the infant. Beyond a doubt the Piskies had ...
— News from the Duchy • Sir Arthur Thomas Quiller-Couch

... an expedition to the flower-garden, thinking I might have a chance of finding some trace of my mistress in that favourite haunt. The gate was shut, but I heard steps, and scratched to be let in. I scratched and whined for some time; Lily would not have kept me half so long. At last the gardener looked over the top of ...
— Cat and Dog - Memoirs of Puss and the Captain • Julia Charlotte Maitland

... experiment and meditation; and, though the vehicle of no remarkable discovery, is replete with interest and research, and contains passages of brilliant and even poetical eloquence. The object of his work is to trace the germ through all its changes to the period of maturity; and the illustrations are principally drawn from the phenomena exhibited by eggs in the process of incubation, which he watched with great care, and has described ...
— Great Men and Famous Women. Vol. 5 of 8 • Various

... of the nursery tales in vogue come to us without a trace as to their origin. In James I.'s time the ending of ballads ran ...
— A History of Nursery Rhymes • Percy B. Green

... of dirt and tossed it on the object. The dirt dissolved quickly, leaving no trace on the gray-black surface. A large stone followed the dirt, and disappeared in ...
— The Leech • Phillips Barbee

... has said that "Attention is so essentially necessary to understanding, that without some degree of it the ideas and perceptions that pass through the mind seem to leave no trace behind them." ...
— A Series of Lessons in Raja Yoga • Yogi Ramacharaka

... society as they existed in the Virginia of the eighteenth century seem, moreover, to have been sharply broken and ended. We cannot trace our steps backward, as is possible in most cases, over the road by which the world has traveled since those days. We are compelled to take a long leap mentally in order to land ourselves securely in the Virginia which honored the second George, and looked up to Walpole and ...
— George Washington, Vol. I • Henry Cabot Lodge

... that he reverenced the constitutional authority of the commons, but they had gone beyond it, they had betrayed their constituents and violated the constitution. He ended with a declamation exhorting the peers to act as became descendants of the barons of Magna Charta (how many of them could trace descent from so noble a source?) and like "those iron barons, for so," said he, "I may call them when compared with the silken barons of modern days," to defend the rights of the people at large. His amendment was negatived. The address was carried in the lords by ...
— The Political History of England - Vol. X. • William Hunt

... events in history: but as it was not till this time that the king of England publicly took part in the quarrel, we had no occasion to give any account of its rise and progress. It will now be necessary to explain these theological disputes; or, what is more material, to trace from their origin those abuses which so generally diffused the opinion, that a reformation of the church or ecclesiastial order was become highly expedient, if not absolutely necessary. We shall ...
— The History of England in Three Volumes, Vol.I., Part C. - From Henry VII. to Mary • David Hume

... won't matter a damn whether you answer me or not. Don't fret yourself that I'm not going to find her. This has come home to me. I'm off to the city to-morrow. I'll have the truth from her; if I have to call in the police to trace her." ...
— The Return of Peter Grimm - Novelised From the Play • David Belasco

... the origin of this appellation there exist two different opinions. Those holding one, derive it from her family name, Fujiwara; for "Fujiwara" literally means "the field of Wistaria," and the color of the Wistaria blossom is violet. Those holding the other, trace it to the fact that out of several persons introduced into the story, Violet (Murasaki in the text) is a most modest and gentle woman, whence it is thought that the admirers of the work transferred the name to the authoress herself. In her youth she was maid of honor ...
— Japanese Literature - Including Selections from Genji Monogatari and Classical - Poetry and Drama of Japan • Various

... the grounds of the convent, and approached the door. Perfect rest and freedom from excitement were unattainable until I had learned whether Marie Delhasse was still safe within the old white walls which I saw before me; for, though I could not trace how the change in me had come, nor track its growth, I knew now that if she were there the walls held what was of the greatest moment to me in all the world, and that if she were not there the world was a hell to me until I ...
— The Indiscretion of the Duchess • Anthony Hope

... speculation opened; Waymark found himself—in spite of everything—entertaining all his old scepticism. In any case, had he the slightest ground for the hope that she might ever feel to him as warmly as he did to her? He could not recall one instance of Ida's having betrayed a trace of fondness in her intercourse with him. The mere fact of their intercourse he altogether lost sight of. Whereas an outsider would, under the circumstances, have been justified in laying the utmost stress on this, Waymark had grown to accept it as a matter of course, and ...
— The Unclassed • George Gissing

... course up to modern times in World Revolution. And now before returning to that first cataclysm I have felt impelled to devote one more book to the Revolution as a whole by going this time further back into the past and attempting to trace its origins from the first century of the Christian era. For it is only by taking a general survey of the movement that it is possible to understand the causes of any particular phase of its existence. The French Revolution did not arise merely out of ...
— Secret Societies And Subversive Movements • Nesta H. Webster

... volume, entitled "William Pitt and National Revival," I sought to trace the career of Pitt the Younger up to the year 1791. Until then he was occupied almost entirely with attempts to repair the evils arising out of the old order of things. Retrenchment and Reform were his first watchwords; ...
— William Pitt and the Great War • John Holland Rose

... of it all was this, that from the moment those two people landed at Niggarey, and told the fishermen there were some gentlemen stranded on the Seamew's island, all trace of them vanished. At no station along the line could we gain any news of them. Their maid had left the inn the same morning with their luggage, and we tracked her to Inverness; but there the trail stopped ...
— An African Millionaire - Episodes in the Life of the Illustrious Colonel Clay • Grant Allen

... invitation. Singularly enough, since she had been hoping all the afternoon that he would come, Clementine Willis was frightened when his name was announced. Her hand was shaking when he took it in his; but there was not a trace of expression on ...
— A Breath of Prairie and other stories • Will Lillibridge

... cell cent vice rice lace city since nice trice dice farce fence slice pace mice voice lance price trace grace pence mince truce mace cease hence prince place brace fleece dance thence space twice peace glance chance splice spruce choice ...
— The Beacon Second Reader • James H. Fassett

... haughty, purse-proud American—in whose warm life current one may trace the unmistakable strains of bichloride of gold and trichinae—pause for one moment to gaze at the coarse features and bloodshot eyes of his ancestors, who sat up at nights drenching their souls in a style of nepenthe that it is said would remove moths, tan, freckles, ...
— Comic History of England • Bill Nye

... this too passed by. The smith carried on his work, grumbling, obstinate and solitary, for indeed he had been a lonely man all his life. He did not seem at all changed, and the fact that his wife was gone forever seemed to have left no trace upon him. He never asked about the child and saw it more rarely than ever. Toward his customers he had his old self-willed manner, which angered some, and made others laugh. He constantly had enough customers to have found an apprentice useful, ...
— The German Classics of the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries - Masterpieces of German Literature Vol. 19 • Various

... of which not a trace now remains, once lay in the plain now filled by this sea—their names were Sodom, Gomorrah, Adama, Zeboin, and Zona. A feeling of painful emotion, mingled with awe, took possession of my soul as I thought of the past, and saw how the ...
— A Visit to the Holy Land • Ida Pfeiffer

... sir," the young fellow said earnestly, and without a trace of the mocking smile with which he had first spoken. "If I do not give my master satisfaction, it will not be for want of trying. I shall make mistakes at first—it will all be strange to me, but I feel sure that he ...
— Saint Bartholomew's Eve - A Tale of the Huguenot WarS • G. A. Henty

... retribution, to wit, that the ruins of his family should be the ruin of the land which had rejected him! Then a fierce thought crossed his mind, and became at once a stern resolve. If he could never restore Carne Castle, and dwell there in prosperity, neither should any of his oppressors. The only trace of his ancestral home should be a vast black hole ...
— Springhaven - A Tale of the Great War • R. D. Blackmore

... in this matter be historically subdivided. In its course we can fix landmarks, and trace the entrance and working of one and another fresh element. The Homeric world, the noblest and the simplest ever conceived on earth; the period of the great lyric poets; that of the dramatists, philosophers and historians, which may be called the Athenian period; ...
— Select Epigrams from the Greek Anthology • J. W. Mackail

... arm-chairs. The other chairs will be symmetrically arranged round the room. In a few minutes the host will appear, in his long double-breasted black coat and well-polished long boots. His hair is parted in the middle, and his beard shows no trace of scissors or razor. ...
— Russia • Donald Mackenzie Wallace

... they ran from the path to follow little gullies of heavy snow. They knew that Brother Antoine had trodden here, though no trace of his steps could be seen on the surface, for the snow slid quickly in the summer months, and masses of it kept covering the slopes as it shifted rapidly. In this way Jan and Rollo trailed Brother Antoine until they reached ...
— Prince Jan, St. Bernard • Forrestine C. Hooker

... hands and in most excellent English, without the slightest trace of a German accent, expressed his pleasure in the meeting. The captain cast a glance of frank curiosity at the bag von Staden carried and at the baggage the sailors had in tow. Von Staden interpreted ...
— Cappy Ricks Retires • Peter B. Kyne



Words linked to "Trace" :   canvass, notice, track, tag, continue, indication, find, canvas, inscribe, keep an eye on, watch over, spark, chase after, indicant, hound, keep abreast, tincture, small indefinite amount, chase, examine, circumscribe, hunt, proffer, re-create, construct, study, analyze, draw, go forward, tail, ghost, copy, trail, observe, ferret, go after, small indefinite quantity, drawing, return, discover, proposition, proceed, give chase, read, touch, line, keep up, memory trace, detect, tracer, print, dog, watch, write, footprint, analyse, harness, trace element, mark



Copyright © 2024 Dictionary One.com