trickle

American  

[trik-uhl] / ˈtrɪk əl /

verb (used without object)

• trickles,
  present (3rd person singular)
• trickled,
  past participle,  past
• trickling
  present participle

1. 

   to flow or fall by drops, or in a small, gentle stream.

   Tears trickled down her cheeks.

2. to come, go, or pass bit by bit, slowly, or irregularly.

   The guests trickled out of the room.

---

verb (used with object)

• trickles,
  present (3rd person singular)
• trickled,
  past participle,  past
• trickling
  present participle

1. to cause to trickle.

noun

• trickles
  plural

1. a trickling flow or stream.

   Synonyms:

   drip, seepage, dribble

2. a small, slow, or irregular quantity of anything coming, going, or proceeding.

   a trickle of visitors throughout the day.

trickle British  

/ ˈtrɪkəl /

verb

1. to run or cause to run in thin or slow streams

   she trickled the sand through her fingers

2. (intr) to move, go, or pass gradually

   the crowd trickled away

---

noun

1. a thin, irregular, or slow flow of something

2. the act of trickling

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• trickling
  adjective
• trickly
  adjective
• tricklingly
  adverb

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• trickles
  plural

Participles

• trickling
  present
• trickled
  past

Conjugated Forms

Present

• trickle
  simple
• trickles
  simple
• have trickled
  perfect
• has trickled
  perfect
• am trickling
  progressive
• are trickling
  progressive
• is trickling
  progressive
• have been trickling
  perfect progressive
• has been trickling
  perfect progressive

Past

• trickled
  simple
• had trickled
  perfect
• was trickling
  progressive
• were trickling
  progressive
• had been trickling
  perfect progressive

Future

• will trickle
  simple
• will have trickled
  perfect
• will be trickling
  progressive
• will have been trickling
  perfect progressive

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

Explanation

To trickle is to weakly flow out of something, like a faucet. A trickle is like a drip. There are a lot of ways water can flow, but one type of slow dripping is called trickling. If your shower is only releasing a trickle of water, you're not going to get much of a shower. If it's raining — but only a trickle — you might not need an umbrella. A slightly leaky roof is trickling. A trickle is the opposite of a downpour or flood. Trickling can also be called dribbling.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

trickle trickles trickled trickling

But a trickle of upgrades in the past few races finally all came together with the introduction of a new floor in Baku, the weekend before Malaysia.

From BBC ● Oct. 4, 2026

Yet when it comes to the ways AI is filtering into Americans’ jobs, many workers are looking at a trickle so far, rather than a flood.

From MarketWatch ● Sep. 1, 2026

That makes the trickle of inbound Americans a positive sign.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 14, 2026

"It started as a small trickle and over the weeks it has got bigger - they need to get their act together."

From BBC ● Aug. 10, 2026

Bernini’s intention must have been for the water to trickle musically from the wide shell with its irregular edges into the basin below.

From "Atonement" by Ian McEwan

A tiny stream now trickles through the weeds on the lake bed.

From Barron's ● Oct. 4, 2026

Their influence trickles down to fans in other ways.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 21, 2026

Wells Fargo recommends stocks in the tech, industrials and financial services sectors as spending on artificial intelligence trickles down into the rest of the economy.

From MarketWatch ● Aug. 11, 2026

If fresh information that trickles in late can be used to resolve bets, they might never be fully settled, these traders argue.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 13, 2026

Water trickles down the walls; a bat comes in for the day and hangs upside down on the pointed ceiling above me.

From "On the Far Side of the Mountain" by Jean Craighead George

The bottleneck has trickled down to personal computers, which has sent prices higher, at the expense of units sold.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 4, 2026

Details about what’s in the new trade deal have trickled out.

From MarketWatch ● Aug. 21, 2026

That White House staffers apparently felt comfortable anonymously attacking Holmes in personal terms suggests that the impulse has trickled down too.

From Slate ● Aug. 18, 2026

The crowd, which leaned younger in part because the event allowed attendees 18 and older, trickled in around 7 p.m., and by 9 p.m., the party was in full swing.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 18, 2026

There was running water at the bottom: it was in fact the bed of one of the many small rivers that trickled down from the hills to feed the stagnant pools and mires beyond.

From "The Two Towers" by J. R. R. Tolkien

Auen and Walker delight in trickling real historical information — the result of painstaking research they both conducted studying the Chronovisor — through the film at a slow but steady, always compelling pace.

From Salon ● Sep. 7, 2026

Details are still trickling out, but here’s what we know.

From Slate ● Sep. 4, 2026

The money starts compounding immediately instead of trickling in over the five years.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 2, 2026

The bubbly 28-year-old sits on the porch of a bungalow at the temple complex and says hello to the other women, who start trickling into the room.

From BBC ● Jul. 10, 2026

All now seemed dry and silent; but refusing to despair Sam stooped and listened, and to his delight he caught the sound of trickling.

From "The Return of the King" by J.R.R. Tolkien

Related Words

• crawl
• creep
• dribble
• flow
• leak
• ooze
• percolate
• seep
• stream