noun
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a vessel used for trawling
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a person who trawls
Etymology
Origin of trawler
Explanation
A trawler is a boat that's used for fishing. Trawlers drag large fishing nets behind them. The special nets used on trawlers are called trawls. Both words come from the Middle Dutch traghelen and its root, the Latin tragula, "dragnet." That's exactly what a trawler (also called a dragger) does—it drags a net behind it. Trawlers are controversial, because although strictly regulated, they can damage seabeds and accidentally catch fish that are endangered or too small.
Vocabulary lists containing trawler
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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.
Driscoll had set up an investigation called Operation Trawler which was looking at Carroll and his behaviour in Angell Road.
From BBC • Mar. 1, 2016
Trawler owners have also described feeling squeezed by the pressure on stocks from overfishing and competition over quotas, leading them to try to protect profits by cutting labour costs.
From The Guardian • Nov. 2, 2015
John Sjong and Konrad Uri, Norwegian-Americans, bought it for 38 cents on the dollar and renamed it the Arctic Trawler.
From Seattle Times • Jul. 5, 2013
The convictions were the result of a seven-year investigation, Operation Trawler, launched to investigate suspicious about the widespread illegal landing of fish within the pelagic fleet.
From BBC • Jul. 23, 2012
Other trawlers, exceeding eighty in number, became, however, almost immediately available at the outbreak of war under the organized Trawler Reserve which had been set up a year or two preceding the outbreak of war.
From The Crisis of the Naval War by Jellicoe, John Rushworth Jellicoe, Earl
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.
